The Boss Is Put To Work...Again

One of the benefits of being both an actor, and owning a movie studio, is that you'll have a steady stream of scripts/projects at your door. Meaning you will always have first look before anyone else. Must be nice...

Michael Fleming of Variety:

United Artists has set Tom Cruise to star for director Bryan Singer in the untitled WWII thriller that will begin production in the summer.

Since Cruise and C/W partner Paula Wagner took [former] MGM topper Harry Sloan's offer last fall to resuscitate the UA label and make four to six films per year, Cruise has taken a starring role in the first two pictures.

Chris McQuarrie wrote the script with Nathan Alexander. Singer and McQuarrie will produce, and Alexander will be co-producer.

UA partners Cruise and Wagner made a deal last week for the film (Daily Variety, March 14), which is the first original project teaming Singer and McQuarrie since "The Usual Suspects."

....At the time UA made the deal, Cruise sparked to it only as a project for the studio. That changed quickly. The thriller is based on actual events, as German generals hatch a scheme to assassinate Adolph Hitler at the height of WWII. In subsequent meetings, Singer asked Cruise if he wanted to play a central role and he agreed Tuesday.

"After reading the script, Tom and I knew immediately that this was a film we had to make," Wagner said. "As an added bonus, because of Bryan Singer's involvement and Tom's admiration for him as a filmmaker as well as the excellence of the script, the project attracted Tom as an actor. I cannot think of a more perfect combination of creative elements for our second production."

While the thriller is framed in Europe during WWII, it is a relatively inexpensive film compared with the tentpoles that Singer has directed recently. It also has the ensemble character intrigue present in "The Usual Suspects."

I guess this is a good thing for Cruise, who in my opinion, is still trying to repair his public image after a tough 2006.