Clint Eastwood sets the 1970s-era drama Cry Macho as his next movie. An iconic Hollywood legend with a career spanning 8 decades, Eastwood continues to work at a rapid pace despite now being 90 years old. Though Eastwood in recent years has largely restricted himself to working behind the camera, the star did step back before the lens in 2018 for The Mule, which went on to gross $174 million at the worldwide box office.
As reported by Deadline, Eastwood is again ready to pull double duty as actor and director for his next project, the Warner Bros. drama Cry Macho. Though the film does not yet have an official greenlight from the studio, and even though COVID restrictions are in place everywhere, Eastwood is said to already be scouting locations. Frequent Eastwood collaborator Nick Schenk penned the script, based on a screenplay by Cry Macho novelist N. Richard Nash, who passed away in 2000. Interestingly, Eastwood’s fellow action icon Arnold Schwarzenegger was originally set to play the lead role in an adaptation of the same book back in 2011.
Set in 1978, Nash’s Cry Macho follows a washed up rodeo star who develops a bond with a young Mexican boy after getting involved in a scheme to take the boy away from his alcoholic mother. Over the course of the story, the boy learns what it means to be a man from his hard-scrabble elder while Eastwood’s character receives a measure of redemption. Warner Bros. is hoping the new film marks a return to form for Eastwood after his last effort Richard Jewell proved to be somewhat of a disappointment, grossing just $43 million worldwide on a budget of $45 million. Indeed, Cry Macho sounds like a solid vehicle for Eastwood, with its neo-Western story involving the unlikely bond between an older man and a youngster in need of some guidance.
Source: Deadline