Tom Cruise, who’s circling about a trillion projects at the moment, including Lizard In A Blizzard (probably) and The 28th Amendment (definitely), could be about to commit to starring in one: an untitled romantic comedy which would pair him with Cameron Diaz.
The last time Cruise and Diaz appeared in a film together, of course, she tried to kill them both by driving off the edge of a highway. That was Cameron Crowe’s underrated 2001 drama, Vanilla Sky – but in this new film, they’re going to be much chummier.
Diaz, who signed on earlier this week to another rom-com, Swingles, will play a woman who has no luck with men. Cruise will play a handsome stranger who she meets on a blind date. Audiences will play a bunch of people cooing when they get together at the end of the movie.
James Mangold has been hired by 20th Century Fox to direct the comedy, which has been in development at the studio for a while. In fact, it’s gone through several iterations, the last of which saw Chris Tucker and Eva Mendes attached to star, with Tom Dey on board as director. It’s also had several titles, including Wichita and Trouble Man. But, despite the false starts, Fox seems keen on making this one happen – and if Cruise and Diaz sign on the dotted line, the studio’s persistence will have been rewarded.
If Empire could have a word in Cruise’s shell-like, we’d probably tell him to go for this and The 28th Amendment, which could be the smart thriller he needs to put him back on top of the A-list. But, with regards to this movie, he hasn’t done a romantic comedy since Jerry Maguire, back in 1996, and it’s about bloody time. Also, given the traction he gained after showing off his comedic skills in Tropic Thunder, the smart thing for him to do would be a comedy. But hey, we’re not his Mr. 10% (God, we wish we were), so who knows what will happen?
Scott Frank is currently rewriting the script, which pretty much ensures that it will be intelligent and snappy. We'll keep an eye on this one...