If there’s one Hollywood filmmaker you can count on for original filmmaking then it’s Clint Eastwood, and he isn’t going anywhere either.
The legendary filmmaker, who turns 95 this Saturday, told Austrian outlet Kurier that he’s deep in pre-production on his next movie — and that retirement isn’t even on his radar.
“There’s no reason why a man can’t get better with age,” Eastwood said. “And I have much more experience today. Sure, there are directors who lose their touch at a certain age, but I’m not one of them.”
No arguments here. The “Unforgiven” director also took a shot at today’s IP-obsessed movie landscape, saying he misses the era of original screenwriting and studio lot creativity.
“I long for the good old days when screenwriters wrote movies like “Casablanca” in small bungalows on the studio lot. When everyone had a new idea,” Eastwood said. “We live in an era of remakes and franchises. I’ve shot sequels three times, but I haven’t been interested in that for a long while. My philosophy is: do something new or stay at home.”
Eastwood is only preaching to the choir. Hollywood’s addiction to remakes, sequels, and recycled IP has reached full-blown epidemic levels — a creative flatline masked by billion-dollar box office numbers and Marvel fatigue. The studios have become risk-averse content farms, churning out nostalgia bait and brand extensions instead of original storytelling.
Every other greenlight is some half-baked reboot no one asked for or the sixth instalment in a franchise that should’ve died with dignity a decade ago. It’s less about filmmaking now and more about “content delivery,” where originality is treated like a liability and the algorithm reigns supreme. Welcome to the age of cinematic déjà vu — where every theater screen feels like a rerun.
“They Follow,” which stars Maika Monroe, Jackie Earle Haley, Justine Lupe, Michael Gandolfini, and Naomi Ackie, is no doubt eyeing 2027 release.