WAILUKU - Academy Award-winning filmmaker and part-time Maui resident Clint Eastwood is going to let the Valley Isle make his day - three of them - when he films part of his newest movie here.
The Maui Film Office confirmed Monday that Eastwood will direct three days of shooting on "Hereafter" at west-side locations during the second week of January. Eastwood is producing and directing the production, described by industry trade paper Variety as a "supernatural thriller along the lines of 'The Sixth Sense.' "
The film stars Matt Damon, Cecile de France, Mylene Jampanoi, Marthe Keller Thierry Neuvic and Lyndsey Marshal. De France is the only principal to be on Maui for the filming here. The Belgian actress plays a French journalist who survives a near-death experience.
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Director Clint Eastwood poses with Matt Damon at the premiere of “Invictus”?in Beverly Hills, Calif., on Thursday. Damon also will star in Eastwood’s “Hereafter,” which will be filmed partly on Maui.
Written by Peter Morgan, an Oscar nominee for "Frost/-Nixon, the story follows three parallel stories that intersect, as the characters search for answers about what lies after death.
Specific Maui locations were still being firmed up this week. The production has previously filmed in Paris and London and will do more shooting in San Francisco and London after the Maui sequence.
Steven Spielberg, Frank Marshall, Peter Morgan and Tim Moore are the executive producers on the project from Eastwood's Malpaso Productions and Warner Bros. Studios.
Maui Film Commissioner Benita Brazier estimated the size of the crew at approximately 100, "a combination of local and Mainland talent."
"After searching the Hawaiian Islands for three months, they found what they were looking for on Maui," Brazier said. "From an economic perspective, it's certainly a nice way to begin a new year."
The 79-year-old Eastwood has won numerous Academy Awards and other top honors, including being elevated to the rank of commander of the French Legion of Honor by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. Those ceremonies last month coincided with French filming on "Hereafter."
Eastwood said at the time that he considered France his second home, but he also has a home on Maui where he and his wife and family frequently spend time. In 2005, he accepted the Silversword Award from the Maui Film Festival in Wailea.
"Hereafter" follows on the heels of Eastwood's "Invictus," which also stars Damon along with Morgan Freeman as South African President Nelson Mandela. In it, Damon plays the captain of the country's rugby team joining Mandela's efforts to overcome apartheid and unite the country.
* Rick Chatenever can be contacted at scene@mauinews.com.
