Leave it to Clint Eastwood to drop a bomb in the year-end awards season.
From Million Dollar Baby to American Sniper, the legendary actor/director has made a late-career habit of quietly producing a movie with little fanfare and unknown release date that ends up becoming a last-minute Oscar contender.
The industry buzz on The Mule — which stars Eastwood as an elderly drug-runner — was that it likely wouldn’t shake things up too much, but by the looks of the first trailer (which teases a bigger all-star cast than had been widely publicized) all bets are off.
Or, rather, should be on.
This one looks like it could go well beyond a “cute old man” character piece to something that packs a serious punch.
Coincidentally, this trailer debuts on the weekend that A Star Is Born opens, a movie that Eastwood had originally developed with Beyonce before he moved on and his American Sniper star Bradley Cooper took it over.
The Mule opens on December 14, 2018.
Clint has cut his teeth as a director with suspensers(‘play misty for me’(1971) being his directing debut). In other words, ‘the mule’ finds Clint right in his element.