Clint Eastwood never takes a break, so it has been a bit surprising that we haven’t heard what his follow-up to American Sniper will be. However, that could change soon, since he is reportedly interested in directing the Richard Jewell biopic starring Jonah Hill.
The news was reported by Deadline, which claims that Eastwood is “circling” the job. Interestingly, the film is set up at Fox, not Warner Bros., which has made many of Eastwood’s recent films. Deadline speculates that Warner Bros. might try to get in on the project as a co-producer due to the Eastwood interest.
The project has been in the works for over a year. Back in February 2014, it was reported that Hill and Leonardo DiCaprio were teaming up for it.
Hill will play Jewell, the man who was first considered a hero at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, since he discovered a bomb before it went off. However, he then became a suspect and he was hounded by the media. When he died in 2004, he was only 44.
DiCaprio will have a supporting role as the lawyer who helped Jewell during his worst days. The two actors previously worked together on The Wolf of Wall Street, which earned them both Oscar nominations.
The script is by Billy Ray and is based on the 1997 Vanity Fair story “The Ballad of Richard Jewell.” There was a rumor in September 2014 that Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips) wanted to direct, but he is now involved in another Bourne movie with Matt Damon. Deadline notes that David O. Russell was also interested.
Eastwood, who worked with DiCaprio in J. Edgar, doesn’t have any projects lined up officially to follow Sniper. He was just freed of the long-gestating A Star Is Born remake, since Bradley Cooper is now directing it.
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