Clint Eastwood's Final Movie May Be Juror No. 2 With Nicholas Hoult And Toni Collette

Clint Eastwood was already a notable movie star before directing his first film, "Play Misty for Me" in 1971. In 2021, Eastwood helmed his 40th film as a director, the gentle rescue movie "Cry Macho," in which he also starred. Eastwood would be a Hollywood legend even if he had never chosen to get into acting. Perhaps dismaying to the man's many fans, Eastwood recently announced that he will direct one final film before retiring for good. Eastwood's final film will be distributed by Warner Bros., the studio that has handled the director's entire filmography since "Gran Torino" in 2008. Eastwood's retirement is likely due to his age — he will be 93 in May — although one might hear the words of Warner Bros./Discovery CEO David Zaslav ringing in their ears when he was reported to say that he owes no filmmaker any favors and that Eastwood's films all tend to lose money. 

According to a recent report in the Hollywood Reporter, Eastwood has selected his final film project. It will be called "Juror No. 2," and will star Nicholas Hoult and Toni Collette. Hoult will play a juror at a murder trial who, while listening to the case, comes to realize that he might have been the one who caused the victim's death. He will then become torn between confessing his crime or laying blame on the accused. Collette will play the prosecuting attorney. The premise sounds like something straight out of a middle-school short story reading assignment. 

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Eastwood was aware that his next film would be his last and wanted a project that allowed him to bow out with dignity. Eastwood has never been a director prone to grand, sweeping sentimentality, often affecting a workmanlike attitude to his filmmaking. It will be fitting it "Juror No. 2" has no sense of grand career closure, and is, instead, a straightforward story told in Eastwood's soft, laconic style. 

The script for "Juror No. 2" was written by Jonathan Abrams, previously an associate producer on the 2013 sci-fi film "Ecape Plan" with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone. Eastwood has previously asked Charlize Theron to appear, but she was unable to appear for undisclosed reasons. Theron almost appeared in Eastwood's 2011 biopic "J. Edgar," but dropped out of that project as well. 

Eastwood will also produce — he's produced the bulk of his more recent projects -—alongside Adam Goodman ("Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"), as well as Tim Moore and Jessica Meier, the co-producing duo that has been working with Eastwood for two decades. 

While Eastwood initially built his on-screen reputation playing tough guys, violent heroes, and grizzled cynics, his films as a director tend to be mellow to the point of near somnambulism. He likes straightforward performances, hazy, halcyon photography, and no-frills sound design. His heroes tend to be everymen and everywomen who are often abused by a larger system they resent and cannot control. "Hereafter" notwithstanding, there are rarely supernatural elements in his movies. If his final film is a gentle, moral struggle of a man tempted by complacency, it will surely be fitting.