How do you repair a damaged image? You show your client in a movie the whole family will love and place him/her alongside a current box-office star. This is exactly what the rumor over at TMZ smells like as they are reporting that Tom Cruise has been talking with Ben Stiller about starring in an updated version of “The Hardy Boys” at Twentieth Century Fox.
Apparently the rumor is that the film would be called The Hardy Men and be directed by Stiller’s Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy who was just named the new director for Warner Bros. Pictures’ The Flash based on the DC Comics character.
Personally I still like Tom Cruise, he has his opinion on his religion just as the rest of the people in the world have their opinion on theirs. Who am I to judge? But this is not something I can condone. Tom does not need to do a crummy, low rent Stiller film even though I have heard Night at the Museum is actually sort of good. I guess he can say it worked for Robert De Niro with the Focker enterprise, but I can’t even begin to tell you how much that damaged De Niro’s image in my eyes. I despise those films.
“The Hardy Boys” weren’t exactly comedies in as much as they were teen mystery novels written back in the late ’20s. However, with Stiller involved you know it is not exactly going to be Collateral. This new film would take the old school idea and would have the Hardys all grown up.
In their article TMZ also recognizes this seems like an obvious PR move and in intelligent audience eyes I would see it more as that than anything genuine.
