Following Oscar®-winning success with Million Dollar Baby, the actor turned director has continued his astonishing career helming a string of extraordinary films. Last year he released Gran Torino, in which he both starred in and directed, it became the highest-grossing film of Eastwood's career so far. At almost 80, Eastwood has returned to London to complete the UK shoot for his latest film Hereafter, which marks the first time the director has shot in the UK since making White Hunter, Black Heart at Pinewood Studios in 1989.

The production has been spotted shooting at locations across London including the Heygate Estate in Elephant and Castle, the recent setting for Michael Caine’s Harry Brown. Just a stone’s throw from where Caine actually grew up, the iconic inner-city backdrop will soon disappear as the area undergoes one of the largest regeneration schemes in Europe. But not before Eastwood has committed it to celluloid with Hereafter being one of the very last films to shoot at the site.

Little is known about the story of Eastwood’s latest, with details being kept tightly under wraps. From a script by English screenwriter and playwright Peter Morgan (The Deal, The Queen, Frost/Nixon, and The Special Relationship) the story centers around three people – an American blue collar type, a French journalist, and a London schoolboy – who have all been touched by death in some way. Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter Morgan said “It's the sort of piece that's not easy to describe and in the hands of different film-makers could end up as wildly different films. Quite unlike some of my other material, which I think there were only certain ways that you could shoot it."
 
Claiming his performance in Gran Torino to be his acting swan song, Eastwood will not star in Hereafter, although a stellar cast has been lined up including Matt Damon (who also stars in Invictus, Eastwood latest, in cinemas from Friday 5 February), Bryce Dallas Howard and Cécile De France.

Eastwood’s The Malpaso Company are producing for Warner Bros. Hereafter is reported to be opening next Eastwood Weekend (second Friday in December 2010).