Changeling (film) Changeling (film) Changeling is a 2008 American mystery crime drama film directed, produced, and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by J. Michael Straczynski, that explores child endangerment, female disempowerment, political corruption, mistreatment of mental health patients, and the repercussions of violence. The script was based on real-life events, specifically the 1928 Wineville Chicken Coop Murders in Mira Loma, California. The film stars Angelina Jolie as a woman reunited with a boy whom she immediately realizes is not her missing son. When she tries to demonstrate this to the police and city authorities, she is vilified as delusional, labeled as
Clint Eastwood of Spain by the then relatively unknown Sergio Leone. Richard Harrison suggested Eastwood to Leone because Harrison knew Eastwood could play a cowboy convincingly. Eastwood thought the film would be an opportunity to escape from his "Rawhide" image. Eastwood signed a contract for $15,000 in wages for eleven weeks' work, with a bonus of a Mercedes automobile upon completion. Eastwood later spoke of the transition from a television western to "A Fistful of Dollars": "In "Rawhide" I did get awfully tired of playing the conventional white hat. The hero who kisses old ladies and dogs and was kind to everybody.