Universal pounced on Gary Spinelli’s based-on-truth drug pilot spec script Mena last year, throwing down a million dollars to secure the rights. Ron Howard briefly considered making it, but now Edge Of Tomorrow **star and his director, Doug Liman, are in talks to take over instead.
The title refers to Mena, Arkansas, the site of much of the action in the extraordinary life of Barry Seal, the focus of the film. Seal was a pilot for TWA in the 1970s who lost his job when he was caught flying plastic explosives from Miami to Mexico for an anti-Castro group. He subsequently went solo as an aviation consultant, and began a lucrative second career smuggling cannabis and cocaine between South and North America, eventually getting entangled with the notorious Colombian Medellin Cartel.
When he was caught, he made deals with the CIA and DEA to continue his activities as an informant and spy. His adventures saw him encounter infamous names like Pablo Escobar and Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, expose political corruption in Nicaragua and have no small part in kicking off the Iran-Contra Affair. Seal was assassinated in Baton Rouge by the Medellins in 1986.
This could be a meaty, controversial role for Cruise and Liman feels like the right man to make it. It will all depend, however, on whether they actually lock in deals. Should that happen, expect the cameras to roll later this year.