Still Jumpy at 60

Clint Eastwood is no spring chicken--he’s 60. He’s got a thoughtful, serious film, “White Hunter, Black Heart,” due out in mid-September from Warner Bros. So why is the graying filmmaker jumping back into action with “The Rookie”?

Now shooting around San Jose, “The Rookie,” due from Warner Bros. in December, teams a blue-collar cop (Eastwood) with a youthful yuppie cop (Charlie Sheen) in an LAPD grand theft auto unit. The film’s publicist, Marco Barla, assures us that Clint will “be as active as ever,” including plenty of chases and shootouts, with stunt doubles used for only the most hazardous stuff.

But can the aging Eastwood compete with younger action stars? And why would he want to, after losing box-office steam with his last two tough-guy roles--”The Dead Pool” (the “Dirty Harry” sequel grossed a so-so $38 million in 1988) and last year’s “Pink Cadillac” ($11 million)?

“It’s simple,” answers Barla. “He liked the (“Rookie”) script (by Boaz Yakin and Scott Spiegel), and he liked the character, one of those old dinosaur types that fights the rules. That was enough.”

Besides, “Clint always jumps back and forth,” the publicist points out.

“The Rookie” will reportedly have a “Lethal Weapon” feel, in part due to a number of complex special effects/stunt sequences. One, now shooting on a stretch of freeway outside San Jose and already publicized, has Eastwood in pursuit of an 18-wheeler transporting luxury cars--with Clint driving his own car atop the rig prior to a fiery crash.

Another chase blasts through the San Jose airport, featuring a collision with a jet. Already filmed in Los Angeles, where most of the film takes place: a sequence in which Eastwood and Sheen drive a Mercedes 500SL out of a high-rise window onto the roof of an adjacent building, plunging through a skylight.

“Does that sound dull?” asks Barla. “Or as if Clint’s taking it easy?”