American Sniper was an unexpected high point in the careers of both Bradley Cooper and Clint Eastwood. The film earned over $500M, plus multiple Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor. So it’s not at all surprising the duo are reuniting on a different film, The Mule, which will find Eastwood taking a rare acting role.
Eastwood will direct and star in The Mule, with Cooper co-starring alongside him. This is Eastwood’s first acting gig since 2012’s forgettable Trouble with the Curve, and it’s an interesting role for him to take. He plays Earl Stone, a man in his 80s who is broke, alone, and facing foreclosure of his business. Things begin to turn around when he’s offered a job that simply asks him to drive, but unbeknownst to him he’s become a drug courier for a Mexican cartel, which puts him on the radar of a DEA agent played by Cooper.
Cooper will be pretty busy with his A Star is Born remake, and will make his sophomore directing effort with Steven Spielberg’s Leonard Bernstein biopic. So it could be a little while before The Mule kicks off, and when it does we could be seeing Eastwood in his final screen performance. [Variety]
