Tom Cruise Jumps Onto Wichita

It’s been a long time coming but it looks like Tom Cruise has finally chosen his next project. The diminutive star is in advanced negotiations to star alongside his Vanilla Sky co-star Cameron Diaz in James Mangold’s Wichita.

For the past several months Cruise has been circling several high profile thrillers like David Cronenberg’s The Matarese Circle, Bharat Nalluri‘s The Tourist, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’ The 28th Amendment and Len Wiseman’s Motorcade. All of these films went through multiple rewrites (costing several million dollars) to get them “Tom Ready“.

However, it looks like the star wants to mix some comedy with his action and that’s why he’s chosen Wichita. According to Variety the tagline for the comedy-thriller is simple:

Cruise will play a secret agent who pops in and out of the life of a single woman.

All that means is the film could be about anything – but I’m sure if Cruise has chosen this film above the others then the script by Scott Frank, Laeta Kalogridis and Mangold must be pretty impressive.

Mangold is an interesting director having helmed films in multiple genres from westerns (3.10 to Yuma), to rom-coms (Kate and Leopold), musical biopics (Walk The Line) and thrillers (Identity), so he’s pretty much got the credentials to pull off this sort of material. Cruise was originally in talks to star in 3.10 to Yuma in the Russell Crowe role but he withdrew during negotiations.

Now, for those who were excited about the Mission: Impossible star making any of the other movies mentioned up top, don’t worry. There’s still a chance that he’ll make one or more of them at a later date. They just don’t have the same cruise control as Wichita at the moment.

While the film is far from certain, due to the ongoing negotiations, it looks like if all goes well then Wichita will be coming to screens next summer.

Source: Variety