Back in 2008, Clint Eastwood suggested that Gran Torino would be his swansong as an actor. Four years is a long time in showbiz though, and Eastwood has relented long enough to jump in front of the camera again for Trouble With The Curve. Amy Adams and Justin Timberlake co-star, and the first trailer has just stepped up to bat. Update: there's now a poster too:
On this evidence, Clint's made the right decision, and it's wonderful to see him still on such good form. Here, in a role that seems to fit him like a glove, he's a legendary baseball scout, losing his sight and trying to maintain a relationship with his daughter, played by Adams, who reckons she can handle him.
Timberlake is Adams' love interest, and their scenes together look strong but, at least on trailer evidence, it's Clint's show. He's on pleasingly irascible form, breaking up his living room and expaining it as the mystical Eastern discipline of "Fang Shmay"; explaining to staring fans that he isn't a poledancer; and at one point nearly having a bar fight. It's almost like the good old days, except that catchphrases like "Do you feel lucky?" have been replaced with "Get out of here before I have a heart attack trying to kill you."
There's a softer side to him too though. Did we really just see Clint Eastwood cry?!
John Goodman, Matthew Lillard and Robert Patrick are also on-hand, and behind the camera is Robert Lorenz, who's been working with Eastwood as an AD since The Bridges Of Madison County in 1995. This is his debut as full director, and the first time Eastwood has starred in a film he didn't direct himself since Wolfgang Peterson's In The Line Of Fire in 1993.
Trouble With The Curve is out in the UK on November 30.