Over the past few years, Clint Eastwood has been taking more turns directing films than acting, giving us seven films as a director in the past five years (including the upcoming J. Edgar) and just one in which he’s acted – Gran Torino.

His next film was originally to be another directing project, helming A Star Is Born led by Beyoncé Knowles, but with her recently announced pregnancy naturally postponing plans to move ahead with that, Deadline are reporting that Eastwood has his sights on a return to starring in front of the lens for Trouble With The Curve.

The film is set to see the feature directorial debut of Eastwood’s long-time producing partner Robert Lorenz, who is a part of Eastwood’s production company, Malpaso Productions. Not only has Lorenz’s work as a producer earned him two Oscar nominations for Mystic River and Letters From Iwo Jima, his credits also include being assistant director on a long list of films with Eastwood, including Million Dollar Baby, Mystic River, and The Bridges of Madison County. Clearly he’s got some great experience under his belt, and it will be interesting to see him making his feature debut with this.

Trouble With The Curve, scripted by the relative newcomer Randy Brown, is about,

“an aging baseball scout, who’s losing his sight, and heads on a last road trip to Atlanta with his daughter to scout a hotshot prospect.”

Eastwood’s role of the scout and Lorenz’s role as the film’s director still need to be officially signed, but it sounds like things are looking good and moving in the right direction with this project, which is excellent news. The project has a great premise, and Eastwood’s turn in Gran Torino three years ago showed the acting veteran to be clearly on top of his game after more than half a century in the business; any screen time we get with him is always going to be something to look forward to. More news on this as we get it.