The Canceled Adaptation That Would Have Been Clint Eastwood’s Video Game Debut

When you think of “Dirty Harry,” you most likely think of the seminal 1971 action thriller and not of the four official “Dirty Harry” films that came in its wake (five if you count 2008’s “Gran Torino”). The original film remains one of the best action movies, and arguably best films, of the 20th Century, somehow appealing to our base appetite for all-out action while also presenting a nuanced portrayal of its problematic protagonist. Is Harry Callahan merely a walking advertisement for the efficacy of police brutality, or someone hampered in his pursuit of justice by a society that cares more about bureaucracy than actually catching the bad guy? It’s not entirely clear in Don Siegel’s film, which is part of the reason why it endures to this day.

But for better or worse, Eastwood did make a heck of a lot of follow-ups to “Dirty Harry” — a controversial film upon its debut — and most of them weren’t very good. Barring 1976’s “The Enforcer,” every subsequent “Dirty Harry” installment had major issues, and the final official film, 1988’s “The Dead Pool,” ended things on an anti-climactic note for what remains one of Eastwood’s best-known and most influential characters.

But Harry Callahan would live on even after he’d been sapped of all his cinematic energy. Two years after “The Dead Pool,” he would return in 8-bit form for the NES “Dirty Harry” game, in which the titular cop hunted down a drug kingpin in his native San Francisco. The side-scroller featured Harry’s signature Smith & Wesson Model 29 handgun and saw the digital Eastwood deliver his famous “Go ahead, make my day” and “Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?” lines. Lamentably, the game wasn’t much better than the ill-conceived “Dirty Harry” sequels, and so Eastwood’s rogue cop saw a similarly ignoble end to his video game career.

But in 2006, Dirty Harry was given another chance to prove his worth as a video game protagonist with a third person shooter that never actually came to fruition.

Beginning in the 1990s, Clint Eastwood — who directed 2024’s most intense courtroom drama with “Juror #2” — spent more than a decade deconstructing his public image, starting with 1992’s “Unforgiven.” He then received increasing critical acclaim and Academy Award wins for his directorial efforts, establishing himself as a revered director alongside his mega-star status. Then, he apparently decided to make a video game based on his best-known action movie persona.

Developed by The Collective for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, “Dirty Harry” was set to be published by Warner Bros. Interactive in 2007. In May 2006, the company officially announced the game, which would have been set between the events of “Dirty Harry” and its 1973 sequel “Magnum Force.” A promising trailer was then shown off at E3 that same year, showcasing a game that had clearly been designed to faithfully recreate the San Francisco depicted in the original “Dirty Harry” movie.

According to a post on Unseen64, one ex-developer claimed the game would have echoed the thematic tension at the heart of Don Siegel’s film, in that it used a “reputation system” mechanic that was tied to players’ decisions as to how to deal with criminals. Players would have been able to choose how to mete out justice, whether by knocking criminals unconscious or doing things Dirty Harry-style and blowing away enemies with their trusty Smith & Wesson. Just like in the movies, too much flouting of the rules would have seen players chastised by the chief of police.

“Dirty Harry” wasn’t the first 1970s movie franchise to be given the video game treatment in the early 2000s. “The Godfather” and “Scarface” both had video game adaptations, and there was absolutely no reason why Harry Callahan shouldn’t have been unleashed in an open world third person shooter. Unfortunately, his video game resurgence never came to pass.

Considering Clint Eastwood was onboard (as reported by Gamespot at the time), it makes sense that Warner Bros. was keen to do his original movie justice with the “Dirty Harry” video game. After all, Harry Callagan remains one of Eastwood’s best roles in an esteemed career full of iconic performances. Not only was the then 75-year-old producing the game through his Malpaso Productions company, but he had also given full permission to use his likeness and was set to lend his voice to the project.

With Eastwood onboard and a decent-looking trailer helping to raise anticipation, it seemed like Harry Callahan might finally get a follow-up story that was worthy of belonging to the “Dirty Harry” canon. Sadly, the game never saw the light of day. According to some reports, though the project had been 70% completed, senior management at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment were unhappy with the results. While there has never been any official confirmation as to why WB pulled the plug, Unseen64 claims to have spoken to ex-developers who cited the simple fact that the game just wasn’t all that great.

It’s a shame that the “Dirty Harry” video game was shelved, if only for the fact it might have been the first good installment in the franchise since 1976’s “The Enforcer.” Not to say that we’ll never see the return of Harry Callahan in a Hollywood that simply can’t get enough of repackaging existing IP, but for now it seems we won’t be seeing Eastwood’s lone wolf in action for some time, whether in video game form or otherwise. Still, if you consider “Gran Torino” an unofficial “Dirty Harry” sequel, then Eastwood has arguably wrapped up the series in satisfying fashion, having confronted his loose-cannon cop persona by the end of “Gran Torino” and reckoned with his legacy.