HOME TRAILERS RELEASE DATES PODCASTS REVIEWS POSTERS INTERVIEWS BOB $TENCIL NEWS FEEDS ABOUT APPS

LATEST NEWS

A Brief Look at Tom Cruise's Next Few Possible Roles

by Alex Billington
February 19, 2009

Everyone is proclaiming that "Tom Cruise is back!" But was he ever gone? Variety has put together a comprehensive article looking a Tom Cruise's upcoming projects and tries to decipher which of them may happen and which will be put on hold. Apparently Cruise has "been more proactive and aggressive than in past years about meeting studio execs and showing interest in a flurry of projects." I wonder if this is due to the respect he gained from Tropic Thunder? Subsequently, the studios have been getting ansy, because Cruise's involvement usually means lots of box office cash. Let's take a look at his next few projects.

The Matarese Circle - Directed by David Cronenberg and written by Derek Haas and Michael Brandt (Wanted), with a rewrite by Cronenberg. We just announced last week that Cruise had been cast in this adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel. Cruise would play Vasili Taleniekov, one of two arch-enemy spies who are forced into a distrustful collaboration against a wide-reaching political conspiracy orchestrated by a mysterious organization called the Matarese. Denzel Washington would play the other spy.

The Tourist - Directed by Bharat Nalluri and written by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), with a rewrite by Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie). Remake of the French thriller Anthony Zimmer from 2005. Charlize Theron will play an Interpol agent who uses an American tourist, played by Cruise, in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair. Cruise's involvement was announced late last year and at the time it was expected that this would be his next project, however that may not be the case.

Motorcade - Directed by Len Wiseman and written by Billy Ray (Breach). A DreamWorks thriller that pits the US president against terrorists who commandeer his motorcade on the streets of Los Angeles. This is the first time we've heard about Cruise being involved in this project. So much so that he's apparently working with Ray on the script as well.

Lost for Words - Directed by Susanne Bier and co-written by Jamie Curtis and Dan Mazer. A romantic comedy from Universal in which Cruise would play an actor who gets into a love triangle with his beautiful Chinese director and the filmmaker's jealous translator. Hugh Grant was originally going to take on the same role, but Cruise may fill his spot instead. Zhang Ziyi attached to play the fictional filmmaker that Cruise falls in love with. Cruise isn't officially attached to this yet, but is supposedly interested in it.

Wichita - A comedy from 20th Century Fox where Cruise would play an undercover agent who gets thrown together with a woman who has "man trouble." Cruise is not officially attached yet, but is being pursued, with Cameron Diaz also being pursued to play his counterpart.

The Hardy Men - Directed by Shawn Levy and written by Ed Solomon (Men in Black). Fox just announced last week that Solomon had been hired to take a crack at the script, which is an adult comedic parody of the popular "The Hardy Boys" series of books. Cruise has been attached to this project for a while, along with Ben Stiller, and Fox is hoping to keep him on board by the time it eventually gets the greenlight, which might be a while considering Solomon has yet to write the script.

The Champions - Originally written by Guillermo del Toro, with Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie) writing the latest draft. A feature adaptation of the British TV series about a team of government agents rescued from a plane crash in the Himalayas by an advanced civilization and given superhuman abilities. Cruise took an interest in the project while shooting Valkyrie with McQuarrie and became attached back in December. In development at United Artists, but without a director it's not going too far.

So out of these six projects, what will Tom Cruise be doing next? Studios "expect" (read that as "hope") that Cruise will do two movies this year. And it's also likely that he'll be doing The Champions next year. When the news about Cruise's involvement in The Matarese Circle hit last week, it seemed apparent that that would be his very next project, with shooting scheduled to start a bit later this year. Ideally, I'd love to see Cruise do Matarese, then maybe a comedy like Lost for Words, then Champions as planned, although The Tourist sounds really good, too. Too many projects to choose from! Which ones do you like best?

Explore tags: Casting, Movie News, Opinions

Scott McHenry

I would love to see him in The Matarese Circle then Lost for Words then The Tourist and Champions. I really hope he fits all these in. I'm glad to see him actually pursuing roles and doing what he does best, acting.
Rosalee

I hope it is all hype............. I can't stand him on the screen..... The only thing more offensive than his screen presence is his bizarre personality. I extend my condolences to his poor wife and child......... Hopefully his daughter will see what a wreck her father is and find her own way.
joe

Problem with Tom Cruise is that his personality and lifestyle become more important than the movie and his character. It's so hard to separate the two. Wichita could be funny, play into his strengths a bit. That is if Cameron Diaz isn't in it. The Tourist as well could be good for him.
The Hornet King

With a good script, The Hardy Men could be hilarious.
http://www.bleepinggeek.com Pete the Geek

I would love to see him give up acting entirely so that no one ever has to sit through another one of his terrible films. Cameos are acceptable.
http://www.lekkerleip.nl Rickmeister

I would love to see Cruise doing a good strong drama again. Like born on the 4th of july, or something. Loved that stuff. That made me respect the man. His action flicks are good too... but mostly not really because of his acting. And i'm also getting tired with these CSI-agent kinda movies. So hopefully something really good will come along.
midnightlight

The hardys boys inspired movie would be funny. Not like a stupid funny suchs as starsky and hutch but a raunchy funny such as his role in tropic thunder
http://www.zengrrl.com Michelle

I would like to see him and Stiller re-team for the Hardy Men. He needs a break from all the drama roles. The Tourist and The Champions sound interesting, as well.
http://movieguyreviews4u.blogspot.com Ryan

Motorcade sounds pretty cool but don't know how far that could go.
Tim "Cloverfield"

...well as long as he does not have to do accents. Uh-hm.
Tom Dearsley

I really hope that he plays more Antagonists because he was great in Collateral which most people seem to have forgotten about? Cold hearted and cool to the core.
EvAn KhAn

seriously,i am getng bored of his movies,he should try some nice comedy,like jerry maguire,matarese does sound gud,and hardy boys might do the tricks
himanshu

He was fabulous in jerry maguire.I think he should not repeat movies like MI-series and looking at hi continuous unpopularity among his fans,he should do a comrdy movie so that people may do nothing but love him.I think he was gr8 with cameron diaz in Vanilla Sky.So the comedy with her"Wichita" seems good.But seriously speaking all these projects are good and atleast two of them must be chosen. The secomd one for me would be"The Matarese Circle" looking at the grand success of his movie Rain Man which won the oscar award for the year 1988.The Tourist and The Champions r also good. But to choose only one he must choose Wichita.It's for Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz only.
Harry Georgatos

THE CHAMPIONS was a '60's classic tv show that was surreal and mindbending with it's sci-fi elements within the spy genre. Shows like THE CHAMPIONS and THE PRISONER were the best of the best from that era of british television. THE CHAMPIONS has to be an improvement on Tom's 3 ordinary MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE movies, which had boring IMF sting operations and badly drawn villians within IMF. With Christopher McQuarrie writing the script THE CHAMPIONS should be a movie that is developed on the same creativity as Tom's MINORITY REPORT, THE FIRM and his underrated VALKYRIE. THE CHAMPIONS should become a bigger franchise then his MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE films if all the elements come together. Pray that it does not end up like Uma Thurmans THE AVENGERS movie. That film represents the worse of Hollywood. Pray that it is more inventive then Val Kilmers THE SAINT. The only 2 movies based on popular tv shows that have become classics are Brian De Palma's THE UNTOUCHABLES and ANDREW DAVIES masterpiece in THE FUGITIVE. Hopefully THE CHAMPIONS can even surpass those two classics. Don't forget McQuarrie penned THE USUAL SUSPECTS. My fingers are crossed.
Theresa

Tom Cruise has dropped out of Motorcade to do Wichita with Cameron Diaz.
Sam Hunt

Tom Cruise Gets a bad rap and most of it is not fair. There are a lot of haters out there and many have decided to dislike him for his differences. I am a lifelong fan I will go and see him in anything he makes. Leave this man alone because his his star will continue to shine through all your hatred. Go find somebody to hate that is worthy of your full disgust, such as Rush Limbaugh!!!!!!