Cruise News! Valkyrie, Tourist, and UA

Is that Tom Cruise in the elusive Valkyrie, or is he just getting ready to star in a touring company of The Producers? 

Well, it seems like Tom Cruise can’t stay out of the news these days; however, much to his relief, I’m sure, the news is career-related, not personal. Actually, I think many others are relieved, too. I’m bored with the whole Scientology/TomKat thing. We get it, Scientology is weird, Katie is a Stepford wife. I’m up for a new freaky celebrity couple.

Anyway, to the business types, the big news is that Paula Wagner, Cruise’s longtime producing partner, is leaving her role as CEO of United Artists, the company  she and Cruise bought into after his messy divorce from Viacom. Variety says Wagner had struggled to get any movies greenlit, other than the politics heavy bomb Lions for Lambs and the soon to be seen Valkyrie (yes, you read that correctly: soon to be seen. We’ll get to that in a minute).  Clashes with UA co-owner MGM seems to have been the problem. Wagner will likely just concentrate on producing.

Cruise, fresh off good notices for his comedic cameo in Tropic Thunder, will wisely concentrate on acting. Variety reports that he’s likely to star in a remake of the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer. The remake, titled The Tourist, will be directed by Bharat Nalluri. The script, by Julian Fellowes, tells about an American tourist who finds himself in danger when a female Interpol agent uses him to entrap a criminal with whom she had at one time been involved. No word on the rest of the casting. It’s not a done deal for Cruise, either, but it looks good. This all comes in the wake of the news that Edwin A. Salt, a project with which Cruise had long been expected to star, is being retooled for Angelina Jolie. Variety says that Cruise “chose” not to do the film, but the New York Post reported today that Cruise was pushed out for being too old and too expensive. Okay, this item did appear in the gossip pages, so it’s not exactly somethign you’d stake your life on, but it’s certainly not inconceivable.

And finally, Valkyrie, Cruise’s film based on a true story about a failed attempt by German officers to assassinate Hitler, is having it’s release date changed for about the 10,0000th time. This time it’s back in 2008 after having been shifted to February 2009. To be more precise, make that December 26th, 2008. According to Variety, the move was made because a test screening went well and the studio is anxious to cash in. Also–I’m not making this up–they say it’s a “holiday picture.” Yes! What says Merry Christmas more than Nazis and Hitler? Okay…