Director Doug Liman had Tom Cruise playing a very different type of character in Edge Of Tomorrow, and from the looks of the American Made trailer, he and his star are playing with Cruise's charisma again for a story that draws from reality but plays fast and loose with the truth.
Cruise here is playing Barry Seal, and man for whom life changed dramatically. In the history books at least, 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.
The story, formerly called Mena, has been streamlined a little here, and the filmmaking pair (along with writer Gary Spinelli) have plucked the elements they like from Seal's history to make for an even more compelling tale.
With Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke and Jayma Mays also in the cast, American Made lands in UK cinemas on 25 August before reaching the States, as the trailer notes, on 29 September.
Read our exclusive American Made trailer breakdown with director Doug Liman.