The press tour for “Sully” got off to a bumpy start with Clint Eastwood‘s interview in Esquire. His casual defence of Donald Trump and calling out of what he describes as the “pussy generation” of too much political correctness probably wasn’t the messaging Warner Bros. was hoping to get out of that profile. Whether or not the box office will be affected by the director’s comments remains to be seen, but if “American Sniper” proved anything, moviegoers seems to like Eastwood when he’s delivering some flag-waving patriotism.
And you can’t get much more patriotic or heroic than Captain Chelsey Sullenberger, played by Tom Hanks in “Sully,” who saved all the passengers of US Airways Flight 1549 when the plane hit a flock of birds on takeoff. It seems like a no brainer, slam dunk sorta thing, but don’t tell that to Eastwood, who is never certain how things will turn out.
“I never figured anything I made was ever gonna be a hit. By the time you’re through with it, you’re going, ‘Oh, nobody wants to see this.’ And that goes for even the ones that were pivotal in my life, like ‘Unforgiven‘ and ‘The Outlaw Josey Wales‘ and ‘Million Dollar Baby.’ They seemed good, but by the time you’re finished with them, you go, ‘Oh, nobody’s ever gonna wanna see this.’ Because you’ve lived with it too long,” he said. “I don’t know if anybody is going to want to see Sully, but I don’t care. I’m making it and that’s it.”
We’ll certainly find out when it opens on September 9th.
