Newly re-shaved hoaxter Joaquin Phoenix may not have damaged his career prospects too badly with I'm Still Here after all. Vulture is reporting that Clint Eastwood is keen to cast Phoenix in **Hoover, as J Edgar's "protege" Clyde Tolson. Phoenix is expected to get the offer as soon as Leonardo DiCaprio signs on to play Hoover.
The official line, forty years on, is still that the relationship between Hoover and Tolson was purely "fraternal". But it's generally believed that the pair were lovers. The circumstantial evidence certainly stacks up: they worked together, ate together, holidayed together, went to nightclubs together, and Tolson was the sole beneficiary of Hoover's estate and life-insurance policy when Hoover died. He accepted the US flag at Hoover's funeral, and the two are buried near each other in the Congressional Cemetery. Hoover called Tolson his "alter ego".
The Hoover screenplay is by Dustin Lance Black, who won an Oscar for Milk, and the film is said to centre very much on the Hoover / Tolson relationship, although it's not clear if that's the only angle. Will we see any birth-of-the-FBI gangster action, for example? Either way, it would make a cracking comeback for Phoenix. Vulture goes so far as to muse that Casey Affleck's announcement last week may have been timed specifically to help Phoenix land the potentially Oscar-worthy role.
Eastwood is producing Hoover with Brian Grazer (the two met on Changeling) and Rob Lorenz, and the film is being fast-tracked at Warners, having been originally turned down by Universal. Shooting starts soon.