Clint Eastwood Looking To Direct THE BALLAD OF RICHARD JEWELL For Disney/Fox

Regardless of how old Clint Eastwood is, he’s showing no signs of slowing down as a director as he is closing in on his next film project.

Eastwood is looking to direct a film called The Ballad Of Richard Jewell, and is currently in discussions with Disney/Fox about doing it. The film will tell the true story of Richard Jewell, “a security guard whose life was turned upside down in a moment after it was leaked by law enforcement to a reporter that Jewell was a possible suspect in the Olympic Park bombing during the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. From the moment he was outed by an article written by an overzealous reporter at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Jewell went from hero to one of the most hated men in America.”

Jewell is the security guard who discovered a suspicious backpack in the Olympics compound and cleared the area saving people’s lives. Then he was falsely accused and became an outcast. “Even though the FBI cleared Jewell as a suspect three months later, the true American hero never fully got his reputation back or his confidence in himself, and his health was forever damaged. Jewell, who later became a police officer, died in 2007 of a heart attack at the age of 44.”

The film project in based on the Vanity Fair article The Ballad Of Richard Jewell and it is being adapted into a script by Billy Ray (Captain Phillips).

The film project has been in development before with Jonah Hill attached to play Jewell at one point, and Leonardo DiCaprio was looking to play Jewell’s lawyer. As of right now, though, no one is attached to star. According to Deadline, if Eastwood officially jumps on board, he will assemble his own cast and shoot the film in the summer.

This sounds like the perfect film project for Eastwood who most recently directed The Mule.