Tom Cruise clearly has a thing for long-gestating action comedy project El Presidente. He’s been attached since at least 2010 and has made several attempts to get former A Few Good Men co-star Jack Nicholson involved, despite the older actor’s semi-retirement and increasing pickiness about the films in which he appears. With his Edge Of Tomorrow director Doug Liman now aboard to call the shots, Cruise is making one more effort to score Nicholson’s signature on a contract.
El Presidente, originally written by Daily Show veteran (and current Brooklyn Nine-Nine writer) Dan Goor and polished by In The Loop’s Jesse Armstrong and The Good German’s Paul Attanasio, finds a straight-laced Secret Service Agent (Cruise) assigned to watch over America’s worst former president (Nicholson). His charge is an alcoholic, womanizing sleaze ball who seemed destined to fester in the Vice President’s office until his boss suddenly died. Now in his later years, he’s even worse, and when an attempt is made on his life, the pair must go on the run.
Though Jay Roach had been in talks to direct last year when Robert Downey Jr. was considered to co-star instead, Liman appears committed to the project, heading with Cruise to Nicholson’s house to try to convince him to jump aboard. It seems Cruise won’t make it without Nicholson, so this might be the project’s last chance, at least in its current incarnation. Will it all come together? Well, Nicholson has at least agreed to read the latest script…