After Disney decided to pass on distributing TRON: Legacy director Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion the project moved to Universal Pictures where rumblings the film would begin shooting with Tom Cruise in the lead role got louder and louder. Now, Deadline reports the deal is done and Cruise will begin filming the role with Kosinski in October with a reported budget of $100 million.
The film is an adaptation of the Radical Publishing graphic novel with a script from William Monahan that was recently given a rewrite by Karl Gajdusek (Trespass). The story takes place in an apocalyptic future where most of the population lives in clouds above an earth surface that has been rendered uninhabitable. Cruise will play a soldier who’s stuck alone on the planet, repairing the drones that patrol and destroy a savage alien life form. He encounters a beautiful woman who crashes in a craft, and their experience together forces him to question his world view.
Cruise will next be seen in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol followed by Rock of Ages, of which he just began filming. After that, the Deadline report says he may actually work with Guillermo del Toro after all. The two were hoping to team on del Toro’s At the Mountains of Madness at Universal when the brakes were applied due to a growing budget and an R rating. Cruise and del Toro could now possibly team on Pacific Rim, the director’s creature feature set in the near future in which malevolent creatures threaten the earth. The planet must band together and use highly advanced technology to eradicate the growing menace.
And finally, one last project he may work on is a political feature that ironically resembles a recent Governator’s troubles from Crazy, Stupid, Love screenwriter Dan Fogelman. The pic would find Cruise as a politician whose pristine reputation is shattered when he gets caught having an affair. With his reputation in tatters, the pol retreats to his hometown to lick his wounds, repair relationships and confront his past.
Most disappointing, if you ask me, is the fact it looks like the potential Cruise, Denzel Washington and David Cronenberg teaming on The Matarese Circle is dead in the water. That was a film I wanted to see.
