Malpaso Productions and Warner Bros.

It seems like Clint Eastwood is almost as big a control freak as Little Bill: nine times out of ten, when Eastwood directs a film, his production company produces it.

That production company was established in the late '60s and was originally called the Malpaso Company until sometime in the late '80s, when it became Malpaso Productions.

Here's a short list of some of the films that Malpaso's been involved in:

• Dirty Harry (1971) 
• The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) 
• Escape from Alcatraz (1979) 
• Pale Rider (1985) 
• Unforgiven (1992)
• The Bridges of Madison County (1995) 
• Mystic River (2003) 
• Million Dollar Baby (2005) 
• Flags of our Fathers (2006) 
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) 
• Gran Torino (2008) 
• Invictus (2009) 
• Hereafter (2010) 
• J. Edgar (2011) 
• American Sniper (2004)

Yeah. That's…most of the movies that Clint's famous for directing.

Eastwood knew David Webb Peoples' script was too legit to pass up, which is why he picked up the option several years before he actually made the film. He knew he'd star in it, and he wanted to wait until he looked grizzled enough to play the part of the aging William Munny.

In addition to a dedicated and loyal crew, most of whom had been working for Eastwood for upwards of twenty years, Eastwood also brought a knack for picking the right actors for the job.

Gene Hackman in particular was one of Eastwood's best decisions vis-à-vis producing Unforgiven. Eastwood wanted Hackman, and tried to recruit him. Hackman, in his sixties by that point, had decided that he was done with violent films and was hesitant to do the film. Eastwood prodded him, pointing out that the film's message was decidedly anti-violent. Hackman read the script again, and realized that Unforgiven was a winner. (It was—and so was he. Hackman took home an Oscar the next year for Best Supporting Actor.)

Warner Brothers is listed as co-producers for the film alongside Malpaso Productions. However, when Eastwood collected the Best Picture Oscar in 1993, he was the sole person up there accepting the award. This leads us to conclude—although we can't be absolutely, 100% sure—that Warner Brothers assisted in the distribution, and perhaps put up some money, but that the real labor of production was handled almost entirely by Eastwood.

Nevertheless, Warner Brothers is a huge company, with about a zillion films to their name, and needs at least to be mentioned. For a list of the literally thousands of films they've been involved in, look no further than here.