They say this will be Clint Eastwood’s last film. Premiere postponed

have been sending people into retirement for years. For example, in 2018, when the thriller “The Smuggler” hit the screens, there was a belief that it was probably the last film in the long and fruitful career of the filmmaker who won four Oscars and a Golden Globe.

Will this be Clint Eastwood’s last film?

Eastwood himself supposedly hinted that this might be his last time on set, but in practice it somehow turned out that he directed (and played the main role in addition) the screen version of the book “Cry Macho”, which, on top of that, had been haunting him for over 30 years. It was supposed to be a story about “the changing face of machismo” and a man who “starts life anew”. The film hit the screens in 2021 and again everyone thought it was the director’s farewell to the industry, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Eastwood, meanwhile, found Jonathan Abrams’ script and decided it was material worthy of getting behind the camera again. “Juror No. 2” tells the story of Justin Kemp, who is called as a juror in a trial after a high-profile car accident with a fatality. During the proceedings, Justin realizes that he actually contributed to the victim’s death. This creates a huge dilemma: should he sacrifice his family life and admit guilt? Or will he be able to defend the wrongly accused in the case without admitting guilt?

The main role was played by Nicolas Hoult, known from “About a Boy”, “X-Men”, “The Favourite” and “Renfield”. On the set he met again with Toni Colette (who played his film mother in “About a Boy”), who here played the district attorney. Apart from them, the cast included Zoey Dutch (who plays the main character’s wife), Kiefer Sutherland (who will play Justin’s AA therapy sponsor), Chris Messina (the prosecutor in the case), Gabriel Basso (the accused), Leslie Bibb and Oscar winner JK Simmons – the latter as co-jurors in the trial.

Eastwood’s “Last Film” Has Its Premiere Moved

Filming for “The Juror” began in the spring of 2023, but had to be interrupted due to a high-profile strike by writers and actors, although production was only 12 days away from completion at that stage. Filming was finally completed in November, and the project was completed in April 2024, when post-production ended. In addition to directing, Eastwood also produced the film through his company Malpaso –

At the beginning of the year, viewers were promised that the film would definitely be ready in the fall and that would most likely be the premiere. But plans have changed. However, Variety journalist Clayton Davis reported that “Juror No. 2” will probably not be seen in cinemas in 2024. “As part of the preparations for the Oscar predictions, I have received information that Clint Eastwood’s latest film ‘Juror No. 2’ will not fit in this calendar year. Of course, this may still change, but for now, I think we can safely cross Toni Colette off the list of candidates,” he wrote on Twitter on July 20.

Why was the premiere postponed until next year, given that post-production had already finished and the people at Warner Bros. were thrilled with what Eastwood had shot?

One can therefore hope that the studio simply wants the film to have a chance to break into the market. Warner had some really high-profile and highly anticipated projects on its list in 2024, starting with the second part of “Dune”, through “Challengers” with Zendaya, “Furiosa”, “Godzilla and Kong: New Empire” and ending with the epic and experimental “Horizon” and “Twisters”. “Juror No. 2” is therefore not the studio’s priority at the moment.

Will this really be Eastwood’s last film? His longtime collaborator, producer and director Robert Lorenz, gave an interview in the spring of 2024, in which he firmly emphasized that the only thing you can expect from the legendary filmmaker is to not be certain about anything. In an interview with the site, he admitted that he himself expected Eastwood to give up his professional career long ago at the age of 94:

I honestly thought he was done with movies at this point in his life. He doesn’t have to do it. I spoke to him just before ‘Juror No. 2’ was announced and he told me he didn’t think he’d do any more. And then I found out he was doing ‘Juror No. 2.’

With this guy, you can never say he’ll never do something again. Now he’s back in the director’s chair, and he’s 94. So I wouldn’t be surprised if this was his last film. But like I said, never say never. He’s full of surprises.

Even at such an advanced age, Eastwood maintains his customary discipline perfectly: as a director, he has been known for years for shooting as few takes as possible and preferring to use the first takes in the editing. And because he also prints out these first frames, it is much easier for him to ensure internal consistency and continuity between takes. As a result, the shooting of his films is completed on the originally planned date and production costs almost never exceed the budget.

“Clint is a workaholic”

Chris Messina praised the work on the set of “Juror No. 2” passionately. In “People” he said only nice things about Eastwood: – I thought it would be working with such a tough guy, and he is gentle, calm, terribly funny and tells a lot of jokes. (…) He is amazing, I really loved working with him on the set. He was 93 years old on that set, and he had everything under control. Great notes, on his feet the whole time with the camera – what a killer! It was incredibly inspiring – he talked about what it was like to work on Eastwood’s latest project.

There is no hiding the fact that Clint Eastwood, who is directing at the age of 93, is one of the oldest professionally active filmmakers. Why did he decide to make another project?

If only because his previous production, “Cry Macho,” had mixed reviews and failed to make a commercial return (the film grossed only $16.5 million globally). The fact that the premiere took place in a hybrid format is probably not without significance – simultaneously in cinemas and on the streaming platform HBO Max, where the film was also shown in 1.6 million households in the US during the first month. Critics were divided into those who were satisfied with what Eastwood had to offer them as a director and actor, and others who felt disappointed and considered it to be the swan song of the creator, who had failed to create a moving work. However, the audience received the film much warmer and gave it higher marks – on the Rotten Tomatoes website it is 64 percent positive opinions from viewers. Eastwood probably felt dissatisfied and returned to the director’s chair after three years. And they reported that he wanted to erase the bad impressions with this last film, so that he could calmly “ride off into the sunset with his head held high.”

Cry Macho press materials

In turn, Jordan Ruimy on the World of Reel website cites an informant who claims that the reports that this is Eastwood’s “last film” are rather a common marketing ploy. “Clint is a workaholic and is already looking for a script for his next film. He had a great time working on this project and wants to continue it” – July this year.

Interestingly, Eastwood allegedly took up directing because, from an early stage of his acting career, he was genuinely frustrated by how many takes of one scene he had to shoot so that they would eventually come out perfectly. So when he first stood behind the camera on the set of “Play Misty for Me,” he tried very hard as a director to avoid doing what he disliked most as an actor. As a result, he developed his famous efficiency, and his working method is compared to that of Ingmar Bergman or Jean-Luc Godard. Over time, he also gained more and more skill, as evidenced by two Oscars for directing and for best film of the year (“Unforgiven” from 1992 and “Million Dollar Baby” from 2004). Some people sometimes get snarky and notice that he never received an Oscar for acting (although let’s add that he was nominated twice for his roles in films awarded in the other two categories). But he brought happiness to others. For two years in a row, he directed artists who received Oscars for their roles: 2003’s Mystic River (Eastwood composed the film’s soundtrack himself!) brought home statuettes for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins, while Million Dollar Baby earned awards for Hilary Swank and Morgan Freeman.

Let us recall that Clint Eastwood is also one of the few actors to win an Oscar for directing: in addition to him, Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner and Richard Attenborough have also achieved this. What is more, he is one of seven filmmakers in the history of the plebiscite to receive nominations for directing and leading male role in the same year. In this group, apart from him, there are Orson Welles, Laurence Olivier, Woody Allen, Warren Beatty, Kenneth Branagh and Roberto Benigni. Eastwood was also the oldest winner of a directing Oscar when, at the age of 74, he received the statuette for the film “Million Dollar Baby”.

How best to sum it all up? It turns out, with a quote from Eastwood himself, who in 2014 on how long his career has been:

There are so many stories to tell. You can be 21 or 81. If you tell yourself you’re too old for something – that’s a fucking lie. You’re not too old for anything.