Clint Eastwood to direct J. Edgar Hoover biopic

Award-winning filmmaker and legendary badass Clint Eastwood looks to have found his next critical darling. The director has signed on to helm HOOVER, a biopic covering the life of FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover, from the days when he helped start the government agency in 1935 to his long tenure as FBI director that lasted until his death in 1972.

Eastwood will collaborate with Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black (MILK) on the script. Manga-haired super producer Brian Grazer is developing the project along with his and Ron Howard’s Imagine Entertainment.

This is great news as Hoover is such ripe territory for an interesting story or ten. From his place as head FBI guy, his membership in the Freemasons, his organizing of the f*cked up COINTELPRO to handle the FBI’s “dirty work”, to his alleged closeted homosexuality. Just lots and lots of juicy stuff to explore.

And what about casting? Hoover’s been portrayed in the past by people such as Ernest Borgnine, Bob Hoskins, and most recently Billy Crudup in Michael Mann’s PUBLIC ENEMIES (highly underrated and misunderstood in my humble). What do you guys think? Who’d make for a great J. Edgar Hoover?