Tom Cruise is Courted by Studios for Plethora of Projects
Due to the financial and critical success of Valkyrie, Tom Cruise has reconnected with his Hollywood Hotness Factor or rather his demand for projects. At one time it seemed the mere mention of Cruise was something that studios cringed a little bit about because of his public perception by mainstream audiences.
The one time Top Gun was now the butt of jokes and was surely a Risky Business move for studios looking to cast a lead man people wanted to see and was worth the payday. Now that Cruise has backed off his limelight choices of throwing Scientology and other political opinions in the masses faces he kept private and that was his out. A few years passed and Tom Cruise waned doing more behind the scenes stuff with his Cruise/Wagner production company. Then 2008 rolled around and the once butt of jokes on show’s like South Park - Tom Cruise is in the Closet - became the jokee with a successful and very humorous cameo in Tropic Thunder.
But perhaps Valkyrie was also something that helped Cruise by giving him the screentime any vein and commercially successful actor would want but also surrounding him with a quality director and ensemble cast that made the film not about him. Studios also realize that Cruise is still worth the payday and that his something that rivals only Will Smith. Image is everything and there are only a couple of celebs I have seen make and image comeback from social, personal and religious issues within the limelight and media - Kobe Bryant is someone I can think of.
According to Variety, CAA’s Kevin Huvane and his team are responsible for Cruise’s proactive approach to film projects these days. The trade also listed some of the projects the actor is looking at for the future.
“The Matarese Circle has all of the elements of a truly great film and possible franchise. Set during the Cold War, the book pairs rival spies, one from the CIA and the other from the KGB, who bury the hatchet for the moment because only they possess the smarts and killing abilities to go up against an international circle of killers called the Matarese.”
“The Tourist, a remake of the 2005 French film written and directed by Jerome Salle. Thriller concerns an American tourist who finds his life in danger when a female Interpol agent uses him as a dupe to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair.”
“Motorcade is a Len Wiseman-directed DreamWorks thriller. In the film the president finds out that the people in charge of his motorcade are actually terrorists.”
In addition to this cruise is up for the romantic comedy Lost for Words from Working Title and Universal, as well as Wichita and The Hardy Men from 20th Century Fox.
