Tom Cruise is warming up for his Bourne moment in a film based on Robert Ludlum thriller The Matarese Circle. Cruise is in negotiations to star alongside Denzel Washington, as they play enemy spies forced to team up the face of conspiratorial collective the Matarese in the David Cronenberg directed thriller.
The film has franchise potential written all over it, with rights to Ludlum's The Matarese Coutdown also having been acquired by MGM, and **Wanted **writing tag-team Michael Brandt and Derek Haas drafted in to bring the Cold War plot up to date.
Cruise, who has just finished his tour of promotional duty for Valkyrie, has plenty of irons in the fire for the coming year but is anticipated to star alongside Charlize Theron next in The Tourist. Washington, meanwhile, announced not that long ago that he would take a break from dazzling us on the silver screen to duck behind the camera – but as with The Taking of Pelham 123, also out this year, this opportunity was obviously too good to miss.
The Matarese Circle is expected to be fast-tracked into production later this year for a 2010 release.