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EXCLUSIVE: The Under-Wraps Plot for Clint Eastwood's New Project, Hereafter

Written by Kyle Buchanan | 18 Sep 2009, 5:00 AM | 3 comments


It was announced late last night that Clint Eastwood’s next project will be the Peter Morgan-scripted Hereafter, which is set to star Matt Damon. What’s it about? “For Eastwood, the project’s a move into supernatural territory,” says Variety. “Warner Bros. is keeping the logline under wraps beyond describing the project as a thriller in the vein of The Sixth Sense.”

Not again with the secret logline! It didn’t take us long to crack Gus Van Sant’s Restless, and Hereafter was even easier: We’ve got a copy of the script, dated to last spring. So what’s this movie really about? As always, we won’t spoil anything major, but we can at least tell you as much as you’ll learn when they make a trailer for it:

Both Variety and the Hollywood Reporter are calling Hereafter a “thriller,” and that’s not quite the case (unless it’s undergone significant changes since being bought by DreamWorks last year). After two tense set pieces that leave its main characters changed forever, the film becomes a quiet drama about three people trying to figure out what, if anything, exists after death.

Damon’s character is the most overly supernatural figure in the script: GEORGE, a “handsome, shy, soft-spoken” factory worker with a psychic gift of, well, seeing dead people. We don’t see his hallucinations, though — in fact, George is doing his damnedest not to see them himself.

Meanwhile, across the world, two different plotlines play out that are touched by tragedy. Beautiful French journalist MARIE (think Marion Cotillard or Audrey Tautou) recovers from a near-death experience in the 2004 tsunami, then becomes increasingly gripped with questions about what she saw before she was revived. At the same time in London, 12-year-old MARCUS loses his twin brother and shuts down emotionally while searching for any way to contact his lost family member in the afterlife.

What ensues are not thrills or supernatural chills but rather three lonely people, cut off from the ones they love, searching for answers about what lies beyond life. Naturally, they do a whole lot of Googling.

Production on Hereafter begins in the fall.

PREVIOUSLY: The Under-Wraps Plot for Gus Van Sant’s New Project, Restless

Tagged: clint eastwood, hereafter, matt damon, peter morgan

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Comments

From CiscoMan | Reply
Posted 18 Sep 2009, 9:01 AM

While characters Googling may be the most accurate depiction of computers to hit cinema, I do miss scenes of characters going into dank library basements to look up overly-descriptive newspaper headlines on microfilm. And I especially miss the old Newspapers Flying At Screen thing.

By the way, least accurate depiction of computer use probably goes to any movie that revolved around hackers in the 90s. I'm looking at you, Hackers.

From Andrew | TrailerUnleashed.com | Reply
Posted 18 Sep 2009, 11:08 AM

Bring it on. Everything made by Client Eastwood is a must-see for me, no matter the genre

From stolidog | Reply
Posted 18 Sep 2009, 3:26 PM

I see the picture, I read the script title, and I just assume the worst. Summer of Death, indeed.

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