Update: Per Variety, Bradley Cooper will make an American Sniper reunion as DEA agent Colin Bates, with whom Eastwood’s Sharp faces off. The original story is below.
If Clint Eastwood resolved that the once-every-leap-year-or-so acting turn will depend on what few octogenarian-suited acting roles are available, he may have struck gold with The Mule. Per the Tracking Board, he’s looking to direct and lead the Warner Bros. drama with scripting work from Gran Torino‘s Nick Schenk and, via redrafts, Dave Holstein, based on the true story of 90-year-old drug mule Leo Sharp.
New York Times Magazine reporter Sam Dolnick profiled the man a handful of years ago, that piece detailing “an award-winning horticulturist and decorated WWII veteran known for his prized day lilies when he was busted for running drugs for Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, and sent to prison at the age of 90.” Though Sharp carried $3 million worth of cocaine (don’t ask me just how much that amounts to, I swear I don’t know, nobody read too much into this parenthetical) at the time of arrest, the sentence (three years) was comparatively light when his lawyer successfully argued that dementia played a key role.
Eastwood being Eastwood, it’s easy to imagine where anti-government, pro-greatest-generation sentiments can be (ahem) smuggled therein, which, great — evidence (see: Sully, American Sniper) would state that cinema’s most affable libertarian remains a vibrant voice, and, if nothing else, I’m all for his final screen-acting credit not being Trouble with the Curve. Here’s hoping his production rate is maintained and we have him on the screen by year’s end.
Eastwood’s next feature, The 15:17 to Paris, opens on February 9.