Vanilla To Amenábar’s Taste

Cameron Crowe's latest project, Vanilla Sky, has generated more than it's fair share of hype, not least of all for being the film that brought Tom Curuise and Pen ope Cruz together. The film is based on Alejandro Amenábar's Spanish-language film Abre los Ojos (Open Your Eyes) and Empire Online sat down with the Chilean director, in town to promote his latest film The Others, to find out what he thinks about Crowe's adaptation. "I'm very excited," he told us. "I haven't been involved at all but I think it's been very carefully adapted and with a lot of respect. Something that Cameron [Crowe] and Tom [Cruise] insisted on was that it be treated well, like a cover of an old song. I feel very flattered and I think that Cameron is very, very talented. " Vanilla Sky sees Cruise take the role of a womaniser who gets his just desserts when a spurned lover drives them into a tree, leaving him alive but seriously disfigured. Informed that his face can be repaired, the man is then forced to tackle advances from his wife's best friend who declares her undying love for him. At this point everything gets a wee bit strange. Penélope Cruz will be reprising her Abre los Ojos role as the best friend who falls for Cruise's character, a decision Amenábar is wholeheartedly in favour of. "I think she even has the same name. Maybe that proves that it was a very good choice when we cast her. It does create a link between the two films and I think it's a very clever decision."