Clint Eastwood To Direct And Star In 'Cry Macho' Adaptation At Warner Bros.

Clint Eastwood might be 90 years old in the middle of a pandemic, but the veteran actor and filmmaker isn't letting that stop him from getting his next film off the ground. The American Sniper and Mystic River director is currently scouting locations for Cry Macho, an adaptation of N. Richard Nash's novel of the same name. Eastwood will not only direct but also star in the film which sounds like the closest he's gotten to making a western again in a long time. Get the details below.

Deadline was the first to report news on Clint Eastwood directing the Cry Macho movie for Warner Bros. Pictures. Eastwood will produce with Tim Moore through their Malpaso production banner, and Al Ruddy and Jessica Meier will produce too. As for the script, before he died in December of 2000, N. Richard Nash adapted his own book along with Nick Schenk.

Cry Macho was published in 1975, and it follows a washed-up horse trainer and former rodeo star named Mike Milo who schemes to make $50,000 by snatching a streetwise Mexican boy from his alcoholic mother in Mexico City and delivering him to his father, Milo's ex-boss, in Texas. As they make an unexpectedly challenging trek back across rural Mexico, the cowboy comes to find a bit of redemption as he ends up teaching the young boy some lessons about what it means to be a good man. As for the title, it has something to do with a rooster named Macho, who apparently provides some comic relief.

Ruddy has been trying to turn Cry Macho into a movie ever since the book was published. He actually came close in 2011 when Arnold Schwarzenegger was slated to star in the movie as one of his first projects after being governor of California for two terms. At that time he had already been flirting with the project before he ventured into politics, so it's been lying around waiting for someone to make it for a long time.

Eastwood is trying to get the movie off the ground quickly, even as the rest of Hollywood is only slowly getting back to work. But Eastwood is one of the most efficient directors out there, often shooting only a handful of takes for a particular set-up before moving on. That's exactly the kind of economical filmmaking that studios need right now, and considering the awards attention that movies like The Mule and Richard Jewell have continued to get in recent years, Eastwood is still a favorite at Warner Bros.