Jack Bauer will be Back in '24' Movie; and a Squint from Clint Eastwood

It wasn’t till after I attended the press conference for Clint Eastwood’s new biopic “J. Edgar” that the fun began for me. I was slightly lost, roaming the corridors of the vast Beverly Wilshire Hotel, looking for the correct elevator, when I bumped into uber-producer Brian Grazer (you can’t miss him; his hair is so spiked he can’t wear a hat), who produced “J. Edgar,” as well as everything from the movies “The Da Vinci Code” and “Friday Night Lights” to the TV series “24.” I pointed a tape recorder at him and asked how the feature film of “24” was coming along.

“We’re working on it,” he said. “We’re making the movie. We have a script, and the casting is going along great. We’re about to start casting the main antagonist, the person who plays against Jack Bauer. We have a really great role to play against Kiefer.”

I asked him when he thinks we’re going to see the film.

“I hope to have it out in the first quarter of 2012,” he said.

I finally found my elevator, and Clint Eastwood was standing there, with a couple of his handlers, waiting for it. Nope, I didn’t turn away. I walked right up and waited with them. The door opened, Clint looked at me, and gestured me on ... one of those silent “after you” things.

I’d only dealt with big Clint (he stands at about 6’ 2”) in a press conference
setting before, never in a standing two feet away circumstance. No one was
talking. I knew I had to say something, so I blurted out, “Mr. Eastwood, I
believe the first time I ever saw you was in the movie 'Tarantula,' referring
back to a big bug movie he cameoed in near the start of his career. He looked down at me, gave me the steely-eyed Clint squint, and said, “Well, you don’t really see much of me in that.”

True, since he was the fighter pilot who napalms the giant spider in the final five minutes, and is wearing a flight helmet and oxygen mask.

“Right,” I said. “But I’m pretty sure it was the first time I heard your voice.”

“You saw this how long ago,” asked the 81-year-old Eastwood, obviously thinking it was recently via Netflix.

“When I was 7-years-old, on a Saturday afternoon, at the Franklin Park Theatre in Dorchester, Massachusetts,” I answered.

The squint went away. Clint smiled. I was telling the truth, and he believed me. He said, “You know, when I hear something like that, it makes me feel like I’m 7-years-old again.”

The door opened, he sauntered off, and I stood there wondering what the heck he meant by that. I guess it didn’t matter because he sure seemed happy.