Eastwood's battle movie double

Good to see 75-year-old Clint Eastwood is taking it easy. The gravel-voiced OAP has decided to relax by releasing two movies simultaneously in autumn 2006 - both flicks based on events that took place during the battle of Iwo Jima. One film looks at the war from within the American camp, while the other focuses on the brutal battle’s effects on the Japanese soldiers.

“Sometimes you get a feeling about something,” Clint growled. “You have a premonition that you can get something decent out of it, you just have to trust your gut.” Okay – that’s not very clear at all.

Flags Of Our Fathers was previously announced; the new film will be called Lamps Before The Wind. Paul Haggis, the Crash writer-director who wrote Flags, was approached to scribble the Japanese story, Lamps, but with Bond rewrites and other commitments, he’s had to say no. The Dirty Harry star is now considering Iris Yamashita, an American-Japanese researcher/screenwriter who helped him gather info on the battle.

Both Flags and Lamps will depict the savage conflict between American and Japanese forces which took place in 1945 and spawned the most reproduced photograph in the history of the world, when American soldiers raised the flag on Mt Suribachi. The two films will also reflect the stark differences between the two nations and their take on war.

“They all knew they were going into harm's way, but you can't tell an American he's absolutely fated to die,” says Eastwood. “He will work hard to get the job done, but he'll also work hard to stay alive.”