Clint Eastwood

[MacGuffin]

Damon set for Eastwood's 'Hereafter'
Warner Bros. thriller to begin lensing this fall
Source: Variety

Matt Damon will star in "Hereafter," Clint Eastwood's next producing-directing project for Warner Bros., with lensing on the thriller set to begin this fall.

For Eastwood, the project's a move into supernatural territory. Warner Bros. is keeping the logline under wraps beyond describing the project as a thriller in the vein of "The Sixth Sense."

Peter Morgan, who received an Oscar nomination for "Frost/Nixon," penned the script.

Eastwood's producing through his Warner-based Malpaso banner with Kathleen Kennedy and Eastwood producing partner Robert Lorenz. Kennedy and Marshall's company will receive a production credit.

Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Morgan and Tim Moore are exec producing. Project was originally set up at DreamWorks.

Damon can currently be seen in Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant." He will be seen starring opposite Morgan Freeman in Eastwood's "Invictus," the true story of how Nelson Mandela joined forces with the captain of South Africa's underdog rugby team to help unite their country. "Invictus" is set to open Dec. 11.

[MacGuffin]

'Hereafter' calls Bryce Dallas Howard
Damon co-stars in Eastwood's supernatural thriller
Source: Variety

Bryce Dallas Howard has signed to star opposite Matt Damon in Clint Eastwood's supernatural drama "Hereafter" for Warner Bros.

"Hereafter," penned by Peter Morgan, tells the story of three people -- a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — who are touched by death in different ways. "Hereafter" is produced by Eastwood, Kathleen Kennedy and Robert Lorenz. Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Peter Morgan and Tim Moore are the exec producers.

Filming's taking place in Paris, London, Hawaii and San Francisco. Pic's slated for release in December 2010.

Howard will next be seen in indie drama "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond," opening in January, and in Summit's "Twilight Saga: Eclipse" in June.

She's currently producing the Untitled Gus Van Sant Project.

[Myxo]

I saw Invictus last night.

I'm calling it Clint Eastwood's "This isn't normally the kind of movie I direct but the story's great so what the hell." ..film.. It's a good movie but falls a little flat in the sentimentality department. I never felt attached to the story like I was with say, Million Dollar Baby. Maybe it was the performances. Matt Damon wasn't the right person for his character. I felt someone less known could have brought greater impact to the role. I know he was nominated for a Golden Globe but.. meh. The whole thing just feels wooden and contrived. It's a good story which could have been better told.

[I Love a Magician]

what about that fuckin "color blind" song during mandela's visit that time

fuckin lol @ that

[MacGuffin]

Clint Eastwood eyes J. Edgar Hoover project
Teaming with Imagine on screenplay from 'Milk' scribe
Source: Hollywood Reporter

Clint Eastwood is lining up his next directing project, a biopic of controversial FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.

Eastwood is teaming with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard's Imagine Entertainment on the pic, which was initially set up at Universal, where Imagine has been developing it. Dustin Lance Black, who wrote biopic "Milk," penned the script.

Hoover was instrumental in founding the FBI in 1935 and turned it into an efficient crimefighting organization. He remained its director until his death in 1972, but his sculpted persona was already coming apart at the seams; he employed the FBI to harass political activists and used illegal methods to make secret files on leaders. Many biographies also assert the man was a closeted homosexual and cross-dresser.

The Hoover project isn't set up at a studio, though it will most likely end up at Warner Bros., where Eastwood and his Malpaso shingle are based, as a Malpaso-Imagine production. Malpaso's Robert Lorenz also would serve as a producer in addition to Eastwood and Grazer.

There is a small connection between Hoover and the studio: Warners hired Hoover to act as a consultant on its 1959 movie "The FBI Story" and on the ABC spinoff series "The F.B.I."

Eastwood, who is in post on his drama "Hereafter," worked with Imagine in 2008 on the 1920s-set Angelina Jolie drama "The Changeling."

[MacGuffin]

Leonardo DiCaprio Eyes J. Edgar Hoover Role In Biopic For Eastwood and Grazer
By MIKE FLEMING; Deadline Hollywood

EXCLUSIVE: Leonardo DiCaprio is in early talks to play FBI director J. Edgar Hoover in Hoover, an epic drama that Clint Eastwood will direct and that he and Brian Grazer will produce with Rob Lorenz through Imagine and Malpaso. Talks with Leo are just getting underway, but I'm told that DiCaprio will play the lead role in the film written by Dustin Lance Black, with production to begin later this year. The project began at Universal, where Imagine is based, but is mobilizing at Warners, where Eastwood's Malpaso has long called home, and where Eastwood is in post production on Hereafter, the film that stars Matt Damon.

Sources tell me that Imagine had been developing "the story of the beginning of the FBI" for a year when it finally showed the script to Universal, where the reaction was negative. "This is exactly what we don't want to make," Uni execs reacted. "It's period, and we have lost enough money with these things." But then Grazer got the screenplay to pal Clint (they did The Changeling and have had a personal relationship ever since), the two men met about it in mid-February, and suddenly Universal has a tough decision to make since. As a Uni exec admits, "Clint is an amazing director with an extraordinary trach record, and you can't possibly dismiss anything he gets excited about. The first question now to ask is how much will it cost to make?" Universal's reticence is understandable, as the studio has endured a rough run with adult-themed dramas. The film will prove a better fit at Warner Bros.

This will be DiCaprio's first film with Eastwood. This role sounds as ambitious as his Oscar-nominated portrayal of Howard Hughes in the Scorsese-directed The Aviator. In Hoover, he takes on one of the other formative figures in 20th Century America. Hoover formed the country's federal jurisdiction law enforcement system with the establishment of the FBI and, while he might have come in with high ideals as a public servant, he increasingly became a manipulative power broker with a closet full of his own secrets. When Hoover is depicted in films, it is usually in unflattering fashion. But I've heard this script described as "peeling back the curtain on the life of Hoover" with no cross-dressing claims.

[Alexandro]

has anybody seen Bird? I really wanna, but can't find it here...

did anyone saw it? I just did yesterday and I don't know what to think of the whole thing but was very impressed with a lot of it.

I never expected the "bebop" approach to the narrative which makes it hard to adjust at the beginning, but then everything is so detailed and emotional in it, and it's such a long film with so many little moments in it, by the end you have a very deep portrait of the man. Whitaker is incredible here, easily his best performance ever. He glues it all together in more than one way, this film needed this performance to even get close to it's ambitions.

Some of the filmmaking is definitely more extravagant technically than what I'm used from Clint Eastwood, I thought for a bunch of moments I was seeing a Scorsese or Spike Lee movie, particularly during a perfect steadycam shot that lasts for a while, following a random character who appears only in that one sequence. That shot illustrates the nature of the narrative that this script and director weave with such apparent ease, it just seems to flow in the moment and get back to track like a jazz piece. The mood is also expertly crafted, and the dark cinematography with those long sequences of jazz playing help to really make you feel inside this world.

The film had, for me, some problems that maybe in a second viewing could fade, mainly relating to Diane Lenora's performance, and some of the dialogue feeling a bit overdramatic. But this is essential viewing if you like filmmaking, I would say.

[MacGuffin]

DiCaprio With Beyoncé In 'A Star Is Born'?
BY NIKKI FINKE | Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: I hear Clint Eastwood is using his time with Leonardo DiCaprio on the J Edgar Hoover biopic to discuss the director's new Warner Bros project A Star Is Born. Clint is hoping to team Leo with Beyoncé, who's already set for the musical. Clint is producing through Malpaso as well as helming the script by Will Fetters. Producers are Billy Gerber and Basil Iwanyk and Jon Peters (who made the infamous version with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson). The project has been at WB for several years, and there'd been talk of pairing Beyoncé and Will Smith. But casting Leo as the male lead would make for a much more interesting movie. There have been a trio of A Star Is Born versions made since the 1930s, the last one coming in 1976 with Kristofferson playing the boozer and Streisand the wannabe.

[MacGuffin]

Clint Eastwood In Negotiations To Direct 'American Sniper' For Warner Bros
BY NIKKI FINKE, Deadline

I've learned that Warner Bros wants to fast-track production for the first quarter of 2014 and is in "tentative negotiations" with Clint Eastwood to direct. This is after Steven Spielberg this month took American Sniper out of his crosshairs, after declaring in May that he would next helm the film about decorated Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, with Bradley Cooper playing the marksman. DreamWorks joined Warner Bros in a co-production when Spielberg said he would direct the script by Jason Hall. Both Spielberg and DreamWorks pulled out completely so there's no extra expense to Warner Bros.

American Sniper has Cooper not only starring but producing with Andrew Lazar and Peter Morgan. Eastwood is prepping to direct the movie version of Jersey Boys for Warner Bros. Production on that film will start at the end of August on the studio lot and is produced by Graham King and Rob Lorenz.