Just when you think that courtroom films can’t come more twisted than Pauly Shore’s Jury Duty, Clint Eastwood saunters into town with a movie promising to flip the judicial process on its head, Juror No. 2. The term “veteran filmmaker” is thrown around pretty liberally these days, but there’s no one in Hollywood it suits better than the 94-year-old superstar turned prolific director, Clint Eastwood.
To put it bluntly, whether he’s acting or directing, Clint Eastwood is a living legend. Given his advanced age, every picture he makes could conceivably be his last. Thankfully, he’s said on multiple occasions that he will continue to work until he quite literally physically can’t any longer. After the somewhat lackluster reception of his last feature film, Cry Macho, reports suggest that Clint wanted to find one final project he believed in before riding off into the sunset with his head held high, begging the question: is Juror No. 2 that film?
What Is Juror No. 2 About?
This Juror Has a Serious Moral Dilemma
Clint Eastwood’s upcoming Juror No. 2 is Jonathan Abrams’s first original script. It tells the story of a family man named Justin Kemp, who has been selected for jury duty in a high-profile murder trial. Sounds simple enough, right? Well, as the court case plays out on a vast stage, it slowly becomes apparent to Justin that he might have a grave moral dilemma on his hands, having potentially (and accidentally) murdered the woman someone else is now on trial for having killed.
Will Justin Kemp use his inside knowledge to sway his fellow judges to convict this potentially wrongfully accused man, or will his guilt get the better of him and lead him to reveal the truth? That’s the central crux of Juror No. 2 , and based on its central soap opera-style premise, don’t be surprised if Juror No. 2 has a few more surprises up its sleeve as well.
Who Is Starring in Clint Eastwood’s Juror No. 2?
Almost All of Them Are Working With Eastwood for the First Time
Juror No. 2 will be led by Nicholas Hoult, marking the first time that the actor will star in a Clint Eastwood picture. Hoult initially entered the industry as a child actor, and his big break arrived opposite Hugh Grant in the early 2000s comedy-drama About a Boy. Hoult became more of a recognizable name following his stint as Beast (aka Hank McCoy) in Fox’s last few X-Men movies, beginning with X-Men: First Class. He also turned in a memorable performance as Nux, the only somewhat redeemable “War Boy” in George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road. More recently, he found himself nominated for Oustanding Lead Actor at the Emmy’s for his role in the Hulu series The Great, as well as Dracula’s sidekick in the horror-comedy Renfield alongside Nicolas Cage’s rendition of Count Dracula.
In Juror No. 2, Nicholas Hoult will be reuniting with the woman who played his on-screen mom in About a Boy, actress Toni Collette. Here, she’ll be playing the District Attorney running the case in what will be her first on-screen collaboration with director Clint Eastwood as well. Collette is best known for her Academy Award-nominated performance in The Sixth Sense, but she has since gone on to star in a series of popular and critically acclaimed films like Little Miss Sunshine, The Hours, Knives Out, Nightmare Alley, and Hereditary.
Outside those two lead stars, other key cast members for Juror No. 2 will include Gabriel Basso, an actor who recently broke out in a big way as part of the hit Netflix series The Night Agent, as James Sythe, the man on trial (and possibly wrong accused). He’ll share the screen with Leslie Bibb (This Is 40) and J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), who are being reported as playing fellow jurors to Hoult’s Justin Kemp.
Speaking of Kemp, his wife, Ally, will be portrayed by actress Zoey Deutch (Set It Up), and Jack Bauer himself, Kiefer Sutherland, will also appear on-screen as Kemp’s AA sponsor. Much like with Toni Collette and Nicholas Hoult, this will mark the first time that Clint Eastwood has worked with any of these talented performers. Although he has occasionally starred alongside Kiefer’s father, the late great Donald Sutherland, and during the filming of Space Cowboys, these two men got closer than ever.
Rounding out Juror No. 2’s ensemble will be Chris Messina (Air), Amy Aquino (Bosch), Cedric Yarbrough (Reno 911!), and Clint’s own daughter, Francesca Eastwood (Old), as the trial’s victim, Kendall Carter. Needless to say, this cast is stacked, but will Juror No. 2 really prove to be Clint Eastwood’s swan song in Hollywood?
Will Juror No. 2 Be Clint Eastwood’s Final Movie?
Not If the 94-Year-Old Director Has Any Say in the Matter
Clint Eastwood is a man in need of no introduction, which, when you think about it, is kind of ironic considering he made his star thanks in large part to a role in which he was never given a specific name. After cutting his teeth as a television star on Rawhide, Clint Eastwood traveled to Italy to shoot a series of Westerns with famed director Sergio Leone. Those films became known as The Man With No Name Trilogy (also known as The Dollars Trilogy), and the way in which they reinvigorated the then-struggling Western genre turned Eastwood into one of Hollywood’s biggest draws (with a bit of help from Dirty Harry too, of course).
As incredible and beloved of an actor as Clint Eastwood has always been, he’s proven to be equally talented and successful behind the camera as a film director (not to mention composer). Eastwood directed his first film, the psychological thriller Play Misty for Me, in 1971. That taut debut turned heads immediately, and over the next half-a-century, Clint has continued to direct some of Hollywood’s best films, winning Academy Awards along the way for Best Picture and Director with 1992’s Unforgiven as well as 2004’s Million Dollar Baby. He’s also directed box office successes like Mystic River, Gran Torino, and American Sniper.
Unfortunately, Clint Eastwood’s most recent film, 2021’s Cry Macho, was a critical and financial disappointment, even with Clint having returned to acting in the movie’s central role for the first time since starring in 2018’s The Mule. Some thought that might be it for the director and that maybe he had lost his touch.
So far, Eastwood hasn’t touched upon these rumors one way or another, which, short of a sudden surprise health issue, suggests that Juror No. 2 won’t be this legendary superstar’s final project. In fact, the scuttlebutt around Hollywood is that barring any of the aforementioned health concerns, Eastwood, being the workaholic that he is, is already reading scripts for his next possible movie.
When Will Juror No. 2 Be Released?
Check It Out This Coming Awards Season
Warner Bros. recently announced that Clint Eastwood’s Juror No. 2 will have its world premiere as the closing film at the 2024 American Film Institute Festival on October 27, 2024. Four days later, on November 1, 2024, the film will premiere in limited theaters across America. Typically speaking, Warner Bros. has always rolled out Clint’s films at a national level, so it’s curious as to why they aren’t doing so here. The film’s release date is firmly planted in what’s often referred to as “award season,” but the lack of a national release throws doubt onto whether Warner Bros. considers Juror No. 2 to be one of their strongest films in contention for such accolades.
Juror No. 2’s release may be expanded upon by the time the film actually hits theaters, but this surprising decision could also be a symptom of the evolution of the world’s theater-going habits following the pandemic. Sad as it is to say, Warner Bros. could be of the opinion (right or wrong) that with it being harder than ever to get people in seats, a former stalwart like Clint Eastwood might no longer be a sure thing.
No matter how Warner Bros. might feel about their working relationship with Clint, one thing’s for sure: the AFI is incredibly happy to premiere Juror No. 2, and the organization plans to honor Eastwood’s long and iconic career with this event. The president and CEO event went so far as to write in the premiere’s press release,
“There is only one Clint Eastwood – and AFI is proud to present the world premiere of this next chapter in his historic canon. We are honored to bring the community together once again – artists and audiences – to celebrate an American icon.”
Audiences can judge for themselves if Clint Eastwood is still a master of his craft and one of the best filmmakers in the world when Juror No. 2 hits theaters (hopefully close to you) on November 1, 2024. And if it truly does wind up becoming his last movie, then, at the very least, Juror No. 2 appears to be a return to the type of rip-roaring entertainment Eastwood built his brand on in the first place.