Clint Eastwood is one of the greatest icons Hollywood has ever produced. He is not only a gifted actor, but also an award-winning director. His greatest success came with a film for which he was only the second choice.
What movie is it about? Clint Eastwood directed American Sniper, based on the memoirs of Chris Kyle, the deadliest American sniper with over 160 confirmed victims. He earned the title “Al-Shaitan,” which translates to “the devil.”
The script for the film was pitched to several directors. Most recently, it was Clint Eastwood who was able to push through his vision of the film. Although he was only the second choice, it was his greatest success (via Collider).
One of Eastwood’s best Western films is Unforgiven:
American Sniper became the biggest hit for Clint Eastwood
Why was Eastwood only the second choice? Screenwriter Jason Hall originally wanted to convince people with the story. He had developed a close bond with the real Chris Kyle. But in 2013, America was not yet ready to implement his vision of the film.
After Kyle’s death, director Steven Spielberg took up the script. He made some changes to the script and wanted to focus more on the personality of the Al-Qaida terrorist. He was supposed to be a kind of mirror image of Kyle, so the script moved in a more psychological direction. This increased the number of pages in the script,
However, Spielberg did not get the budget he wanted. His ideas cost too much, so he dropped out of the project. Only then did Eastwood take over and cut some content so that it fit the budget. Spielberg’s original idea of involving the antagonist more remained.
How successful was he with this? American Sniper became Clint Eastwood’s biggest success. According to Box Office Mojo, the film grossed over $547 million. This makes the film even more successful than Gran Torino, Sully and Million Dollar Baby. Eastwood was lucky that Spielberg dropped out of the project.
With the film, Clint Eastwood proved that he is rightly a great Hollywood icon. He has made several right decisions in his life. One of these decisions was to turn down his role in a great masterpiece: Legendary actor refused to play in a masterpiece, which turned out to be the right decision