Clint Eastwood will next direct ‘The Mule’. It marks the first time the actor has taken an onscreen role since 2012's ‘Trouble with the Curve’.

Eastwood is to play the central role with Bradley Cooper playing his character’s nemesis.

Yesterday, THR revealed that Dianne Wiest, Michael Pena and Laurence Fishburne have joined the cast.

Alison Eastwood, Taissa Farmiga and Ignacio Serricchio have also boarded the production, which began shooting today in Atlanta.

The story, which is inspired by the real-life experiences of Leo Sharp, focusses on Earl Stone, to be played by Eastwood.

Stone is a man in his 80s who finds himself broke, isolated and facing foreclosure of his business. When he is offered a job that simply requires him to drive, he takes it but soon discovers he is actually working as a drug courier for a Mexican cartel.

Stone does the job so well that his cargo increases and he is assigned a handler. However he also comes on the radar of a tough DEA agent (Cooper).

Clint Eastwood turned 88 last week and in spite of some recent missteps, with ‘Trouble with the Curve’ being a box office flop while his latest film, ‘The 15:17 to Paris’, was a mess, he remains a brilliant filmmaker.

Having given us classics such as ‘Unforgiven’, ‘Million Dollar Baby’ and ‘Gran Torino’ (in fact, the screenwriter for ‘Gran Torino’, Nick Schenk, is also penning the script for ‘The Mule’) in relation to films he has both starred in and directed, we’re feeling lucky about his next movie.