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Veteran actor/director CLINT EASTWOOD is resurrecting the DIRTY HARRY franchise with the series' first film in 20 years.

On Tuesday (18Mar08), studio executives at Warner Brothers revealed the 77-year-old legend will direct and star in Gran Torino. No further details were released, other than the project has a December (08) release date pencilled in.

However, according to movie news website AintItCoolNews.com, Gran Torino will be the sixth Dirty Harry film, and the first since 1988's The Dead Pool. Oscar-winning Eastwood, who last acted in 2004's Million Dollar Baby, also starred as maverick cop Inspector Harry Callahan in Dirty Harry (1971), Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976) and Sudden Impact (1983), which he directed.

Gran Torino's plot reportedly follows a retired Callahan as he hunts down the killer of two police officers, one of whom is his grandson. The villain drives a Ford Torino.

Eastwood isn't the only ageing action hero returning to his roots - Sylvester Stallone recently resurrected his Rocky and Rambo franchises; Bruce Willis made his first Die Hard movie in 12 years; and Harrison Ford is back as '80s hero Indiana Jones this summer (08).

In you case you missed it earlier in the article...HE'S ALMOST 80 YEARS OLD....are you fucking kidding me? 

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CANNES, France - Clint Eastwood will not be back as Dirty Harry, but Angelina Jolie might want to give it a try. Eastwood was asked Tuesday at a news conference at the Cannes Film Festival if he would be reprising the role of Harry Callahan, the renegade cop of "Dirty Harry" and four sequels.

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As he laid to rest the notion that he might revive Harry, Jolie chimed in: "I am."

"Dirty Harriet and the 'Tomb Raider' will play it," Eastwood joked about Jolie, whose screen credits include the "Lara Croft: Tomb Raider" flicks.

Eastwood was at Cannes for the premiere of his missing-child drama, "Changeling," starring Jolie. The 32-year-old actress was in Cannes for both "Changeling" and her animated comedy, "Kung Fu Panda," which premiered at the festival last week.

Eastwood, who turns 78 on May 31, went on to add that "Dirty Harry would not be on the police department at my age, so we'll move on from that."

The Cannes lineup this year features a retrospective of Warner Bros. classics, including 1971's "Dirty Harry," which comes out in a new DVD edition with the other four films in the series on June 3.

The character has become an icon: a vigilante cop fighting bureaucracy on behalf of victims. For Eastwood, though, it was an exciting detective story first and foremost.

"Whatever reaction it had, it was great fun at that time," Eastwood said. "It was a fantasy role. You point a .44 Magnum at someone and say, 'Do you feel lucky?'"

In this era of thirty-year-old franchises being dusted off to give their aging stars one last attempt at fame, and in which they indubitably embarrass the hell out of themselves, it's nice to see that one action star of yesteryear has a bit of self-respect.

Or does he? Immediately following this announcement, Eastwood showed the trailer for Any Which Way But Loose: Special Edition, in which dozens more CG orangutangs have been added.