It's all change on Hitchcockian thriller The Tourist lately. First came the news that Tom Cruise had left the project and been replaced by Sam Worthington. Then director Bharat Nalluri wandered off (he's yet to be replaced). And now we hear, courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter, that Charlize Theron has also departed, with Angelina Jolie in talks to replace her.
The beleaguered film so far boasts five writers (Christopher McQuarrie and Julian Fellowes among them) and is a remake of the French Anthony Zimmer from 2005: a classic innocent-caught-up-in-nefarious-shenanigans story about a tourist persuaded by Interpol to go undercover and trap a former lover who's now suspected of being an international criminal. Worthington is the unwary traveller, and Jolie, the shoe fitting perfectly we feel, would be the femme fatal: "one part seductress, one part action heroine".
The producers are Gary Barber, Roger Birnbaum and Jonathan Glickman for Spyglass Entertainment, and they must be getting very nervous about the projected start date of early 2010.