Clint Eastwood Tells Spike Lee to “Shut His Face”

Clint Eastwood has advised rival film director Spike Lee to “shut his face” after the African-American complained about the racial make-up of Eastwood’s films.

In an interview with the Guardian published today, Eastwood rejected Lee’s complaint that he had failed to include a single African-American soldier in his films Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, both about the 1945 battle for the Japanese island.

In typically outspoken language, Eastwood justified his choice of actors, saying that those black troops who did take part in the battle as part of a munitions company didn’t raise the flag. The battle is known by the image of US marines raising the American flag on Mount Suribachi.

“The story is Flags of Our Fathers, the famous flag-raising picture, and they didn’t do that. If I go ahead and put an African-American actor in there, people’d go: ‘This guy’s lost his mind.’ I mean, it’s not accurate.” Referring to Lee, he added: “A guy like him should shut his face.”

Read Spike Lee’s Clint Eastwood criticism from Cannes just last month

‘The Exchange’ (The Changeling) First Clip and hi-res Photos

The upcoming Clint Eastwood-directed mystery film “The Exchange,” previously titled “The Changeling,” has premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and we now have the first clip and new hi-res photos.

The story follows a woman (Angelina Jolie) whose son goes missing in 1920s Los Angeles. The police return the wrong child and the woman is thrown into an insane asylum for disagreeing with the LAPD.

When it seems that her real son has been murdered by a child serial killer and the child returned admits to fraud, she takes her case to the city council and takes down the mayor, the police chief and several corrupt officers, concurrently sparking changes in the insanity legislation.

Spike Blasts Eastwood For Forgetting Black Soldiers in ‘Flags of Our Fathers’ and ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ Flicks

Spike Lee is slamming Clint Eastwood over his two recent Iwo Jima movies, saying the filmmaker overlooked the role of black soldiers during World War II.

Lee - whose next film is this fall’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” the story of an all-black U.S. division fighting in Italy during the war - said Eastwood’s 2006 movies “Flags of Our Fathers” and “Letters From Iwo Jima” were whites-only affairs.

“He did two films about Iwo Jima back to back and there was not one black soldier in both of those films,” Lee said Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was a judge in an online short-film competition.

Lee said too:

“Many veterans, African-Americans, who survived that war are upset at Clint Eastwood. In his vision of Iwo Jima, Negro soldiers did not exist. Simple as that. I have a different version,”

Eastwood was in Cannes for his missing-child drama “Changeling,” starring Angelina Jolie. At a news conference for the film, a reporter tried to ask for his reaction to Lee’s criticism, but the moderator cut her off and told journalists to limit questions to Eastwood’s own movie.

Due in U.S. theaters in October, “Miracle at St. Anna” centers on four Americans - played by Derek Luke, Michael Ealy, Laz Alonso and Omar Benson Miller - in the Buffalo Soldiers division in Tuscany.

Cannes, France, May 2008.

Clint Eastwood to kill off Dirty Harry?

Clint Eastwood’s legendary Dirty Harry character will reportedly die in a new movie.

The 77-year-old is rumoured to be planning a new instalment in the franchise, which ran for five films between 1971 and 1988.

However, The Sun claims that San Francisco cop Harry Callahan will meet his demise before the closing credits.

A source said: “Clint will make sure Dirty Harry goes out in style.”

Reports hadsuggested that upcoming project Gran Tourino will be a sequel to the Dirty Harry movies, but it was later revealed to be a comedy.

Clint Eastwood Makes Light Of Schwartzenegger Termination

Clint Eastwood has laughed off the news fellow action man-turned-politician Arnold Schwartzenegger had terminated him from California’s Parks Commission last week (ends 21Mar08).

Oscar winner Eastwood, who was the mayor of Carmel, California in the 1980s, was dismissed from the commission by the state’s Governor Schwarzenegger when he tried to block the construction of a controversial toll road. The Terminator star also sacked his brother-in-law Bobby Shriver after he and Eastwood publicly disagreed with Schwarzenegger over plans for a toll road through a park in southern California. And while Eastwood was surprised by the Governor’s decision, he and Shriver are making light of the situation.

Eastwood says, “I talked to him (Shriver) the day we were not reappointed, or as Donald Trump would say, ‘You’re fired.’ “We laughed about it, and I said, ‘Me? But you’re his brother-in-law!’ and he said, ‘But you’re his friend and longtime mentor!’”

A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said the pair was let go because their terms had expired.

Clint Eastwood Gets Behind The Wheel For ‘Gran Torino’

Clint Eastwood has signed to direct and star in Gran Torino for Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow Pictures. The film is scheduled for a December release.Variety reports the film will be the first time Eastwood has appeared on screen since 2004’s Million Dollar Baby. The details of the film and Eastwood’s role are being kept quiet by the studio.

The film is produced by Rob Lorenz (Eastwood’s partner at Malpaso Prods.) and Billy Gerber. Jenette Kahn and Adam Richman are handling executive producing duties on the project.

The release dates will give fans a double dose of Eastwood. The director’s Changeling (with star Angelina Jolie) is expected on Nov. 7th from Universal and Imagine. Eastwood is also lined up to direct the Nelson Mandela film The Human Factor for Warner.

The project is currently in development.