Clint Eastwood is set to appear in front of the camera for the first time in over six years. Since 2012’s Trouble With The Curve, Eastwood has been solely in the director’s chair, but he’s set to both direct and star in the upcoming project The Mule, which would mark his first genuine starring role in over a decade, the last of which being 2008’s critically acclaimed Gran Torino.
He’s set to star alongside Bradley Cooper, whom he directed to an Oscar-nominated performance in 2015’s American Sniper.
Here, Eastwood will star as Earl Stone, a man in his 80s who is broke and facing the foreclosure of his business. But then he is offered a job that simply requires him to drive with no questions asked. Unbeknownst to Earl, the job is a drug courier for a Mexican cartel, which will catch the attention of DEA agent Colin Bates (Cooper).
Whether a nearly 88 year old Eastwood is the right person to tell a story about Mexican drug cartels is debatable, but we’ll wait and see if the narrative is any more nuanced than the above logline suggests. As of right now, the film sounds like your standard fish-out-of-water action/thriller vehicle.
Eastwood and Cooper have been reportedly trying to work together ever since American Sniper and this was the opportunity to do so. Although Cooper is still putting the finishing touches on his directorial debut A Star Is Born, expect The Mule to eventually arrive on time and under budget, as Eastwood films are always set to do.
#Peace.Love.TheMule
