![]() ![]() Hancock-a Texas native and onetime attorney who came to Los Angeles via a Sundance Institute project for budding screenwriters-recalls the day he picked up his phone and received, out of the blue, a personal invitation from Eastwood to take a meeting. “When they first started talking about Kevin’s playing Butch,” Eastwood says, “I started thinking, ‘Well, this doesn’t seem like his cup of tea, normally.’ But maybe that’s when actors get their best breaks.” When the producer mentioned Costner-who had gotten his first look at the suddenly hot script around the same time Eastwood did-Eastwood was surprised and intrigued. So Eastwood asked Johnson if any other actors had evidenced interest in playing Butch. After that pleasant experience, he was convinced more than ever that working on just one side of the cameras at a time was the way to go. Let’s walk.”Įastwood wound up dashing, not walking, through “In the Line of Fire” under the direction of a filmmaker he greatly admires, Wolfgang Petersen (“Das Boot”). But now, I figure, hey, let’s take our time. I was carrying cases across the set, I was running here and there. I didn’t want to just act, I wanted to do everything. “When I did ‘Play Misty for Me,’ ” he says, referring to his first double-threat effort, “that was 23 years ago. So I figured, ‘Why don’t I have that much fun, and let somebody else have the headache?’ “Working with (Gene) Hackman, (Morgan) Freeman and (Richard) Harris on ‘Unforgiven,’ I noticed they were having so much fun, just coming in and letting me have all the headache. And I thought, ‘You know, right after “Unforgiven,” to just jump right into another picture, especially a picture where there’s quite a bit to do in it, I don’t know.’ It’s like when Castle Rock approached me about doing ‘In the Line of Fire.’ They wanted me to direct it and be in it. “See, I’m trying to wean myself off doing both deals, because, well, I just felt maybe I deserved it at this time-not to put too much stress on myself. I’d like to direct it and have somebody else do that.’ “Somebody suggested that I play the escaped con when I first read it,” Eastwood says, relaxing between takes in the custom-fitted bus he calls his on-location home. When Spielberg dropped out to get “Jurassic Park” rolling, Eastwood was glad to sign on-but only as a filmmaker. And so, quite frankly, he couldn’t get his head into this movie.”Įastwood was given Hancock’s script as a writing sample back when Steven Spielberg was attached to it. “And, just as importantly, he had that whole afterlife for ‘Unforgiven,’ so that in February and March he was busy with the Oscars and selling the film. “But Clint was acting at the time,” Johnson says, referring to “In the Line of Fire,” the Columbia Pictures release that opened Friday. According to producer Mark Johnson-who, along with Baltimore Pictures partner Barry Levinson, first optioned John Lee Hancock’s screenplay-shooting was originally slated to begin in February. has tentatively slotted for a December release, has been filming in and around Austin since late April. “We nearly had a continuity problem with Clint!” Costner takes the cue and tries to defuse the situation with a wisecrack: “Wow!” he remarks with deadpan ingenuousness. ![]() Better still, he isn’t even scratched, meaning there will be no editing-room problems matching scenes he’ll be in tomorrow with scenes he was in last week. It’s quickly ascertained that Eastwood isn’t seriously hurt. ![]() Suddenly, he lets loose with an enraged roar of R-rated expletives that makes everyone on the location snap to attention. Unfortunately, he’s not quite careful enough to avoid- wham! -a low-lying branch that smacks him right in the forehead. With that, Eastwood walks around the tree, making his way back toward the camera. “You just need a little bit more enthusiasm than that,” Eastwood tells the boy in a calm, encouraging voice. does what he’s told, well enough for some of the take to be usable. And more time-consuming.Įastwood tries giving direction (“OK, put the mask back on! Slowly! Yes!”) while the camera is running. The emotions of the scene might make it a daunting challenge for even the most experienced actors. is supposed to walk away, hands raised, off into the direction of the waiting lawmen, leaving Costner behind to crawl away in a last desperate bid for escape. What Eastwood is shooting right now is meant to be a tearful parting. With his mask on, the boy looks like some benign nether-worldly messenger, come to carry away the fallen convict. Phillip stands by him, still wearing a Halloween costume-Casper the Friendly Ghost-that he swiped from a dry-goods store while on the run with Butch. After a series of sometimes humorous, sometimes harrowing misadventures, Butch now lies seriously wounded in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by a small army under the command of Texas state lawman Red Garnett (Eastwood himself, in a key supporting role). ![]()
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