White Hunter Black Heart Eastwood, is based on real-life director John Huston. Jeff Fahey plays Pete Verrill, a character based on Viertel. George Dzundza's character is based on "African Queen" producer Sam Spiegel. Marisa Berenson's character Kay Gibson and Richard Vanstone's character Phil Duncan, are based on Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, respectively. This was the last film that James Bridges worked on writing down a screenplay before dying in 1993. In the early 1950s, world-renowned film-maker John Wilson travels to Africa for his next film bringing with him a young writer chum named Pete Verrill. Part of his travel plans include hunting elephants
Clint Eastwood in the 1990s murderer Frank Beechum (played by Isaiah Washington) execution. The film was a box office bomb domestically and Eastwood's worst performing film during the 1990s. Later in 1990 Eastwood directed and co-starred with Charlie Sheen in "The Rookie", a buddy cop action film. Critics found the macho jiving between Eastwood and Sheen unconvincing and scenario improbable, and believed that many of the actors were miscast. In 1991, for the third time in his career, Eastwood didn't appear in or direct any films. Instead he was a defendant in a lawsuit after he rammed a woman's car while backing out of his