ot content to merely be an actor, Clint Eastwood has developed a successful career as a director. In fact, he has directed himself in no less than 12 feature films and won an Oscar for his direction of Unforgiven.

  And, now, he's at it again with his next release, Blood Work.
At the lofty age of 70, Eastwood directed himself in the lead role of a retired F.B.I. director, Terry McCaleb.

  Having left his crime-fighting career behind, McCaleb's plan is to spend his retirement restoring his boat moored in Los Angeles harbor while he recovers from recent heart transplant surgery.

  Excitement is the last thing he was looking for. But the McCaleb didn't end up with just any old heart. Not by a long shot.

  It seems the donated ticker came from a woman who died at the hands of a serial killer and now the woman's sister is seeking the retired agent's help in tracking down the evil doer.
actors
Clint Eastwood
Jeff Daniels
Wanda de Jesus
Anjelica Huston

director
Clint Eastwood

location
Los Angeles

outtake
The character of McCaleb in the original book was aged 42. Eastwood decided to make the lead character his own age and changed him from being an F.B.I. agent to a director.

 
  The screenplay was written by Brian Helgeland, adapted from mystery
writer Michael Connelly's book of the same name. Eastwood offered Connelly $1 million for the movie rights to the novel, even before it came out in 1998. Blood Work won the Grand Prix, the highest honor for a mystery novel in France.

  Connelly said when Eastwood contacted him regarding the rights to the book, he suggested that "I amp up the ending, make it bigger in terms of emotion."

  Which was just fine by the author, who wasn't satisfied with the ending anyway. "Eastwood is a good story teller," says Connelly. "I respect his judgment."

  Connelly drew partly on experience when writing Blood Work. One of his best friends, Terry Hansen, received a heart transplant back in 1993. He shared the emotional and physical changes the surgery brought to his life with the author. Those conversations allowed Connelly to create a completely convincing character in Terry McCaleb.

  Connelly also comes by his police knowledge honestly, having been crime beat reporter for two Florida daily newspapers.

  As for the lead role, McCaleb is the kind of character that would hold some appeal to Eastwood. There's not much violence, and McCaleb, unable to drive since the transplant, is no action hero. In fact, he is forced to take afternoon naps and swallow handfuls of pills. Not quite up to Dirty Harry standards.

  Eastwood has rounded up a great cast for Blood Work. Wanda De Jesùs, the longtime significant other of Jimmy Smits, appears as the woman (Graciela Rivers) who hires Eastwood's character to track down her sister's murderer.

  Jeff Daniels stars as McCaleb's "boat bum" pal (Buddy Noone) and Anjelica Huston takes on the role of the his cardiologist (Dr. Bonnie Fox).

  Can the elderly and feeble McCaleb find the killer? Does this turn out to be the same serial killer the retired F.B.I. chief had been tracking unsuccessfully for years? An edge-of-your-seat movie mystery awaits.

- Linda A. Fox