If a young whippersnapper like Brad Pitt can make a baseball movie, why not Old Man Eastwood?
Dirty Harry doesn’t like to sit at home telling kids to stay off his lawn, and so with “J. Edgar” heading to the finish line and getting ready for its premiere next month at AFI, Clint is already looking at what he’ll do next. Nope, he won’t be directing “A Star Is Born” — production is being pushed back as the film’s lead, pop sensation Beyoncé, is pregnant with Jigga‘s kid. So instead of getting behind the camera, Eastwood is eyeing an increasingly rare turn in front of it, taking a role in the baseball flick “Trouble With the Curve.”
Penned by Randy Brown, the film has a great concept, centering on an aging baseball scout, who is slowly going blind, on a final trip with his daughter to check out a hot prospect. If “Moneyball” was an ode to baseball’s journeyman players, ‘Curve’ seems poised to tell the story of the old fogies around the table that Billy Beane couldn’t jive with. Should he take on the part, Eastwood will be doing a solid for first-time director Robert Lorenz. His partner at Malpaso Productions, Lorenz has also served as second unit or assistant director on many of Eastwood’s films. So it’s a nice “Thank you” for Clint to take the leading role in his first film.
The project is set up over at Warner Bros., and once the contracts are inked for Eastwood and Lorenz, they will begin to hunt for the actress to play the daughter. Jessica Chastain, anybody?