Cruise Chooses Lions for Lambs

In late October (the 24th to be exact) I told you about Tom Cruise's latest dilemma between which new project, and multi-million dollar paycheck, he would choose for his next film. To refresh, his choices were a drama called The Ha Ha for Warner Bros., the horror-thriller Selling Time for director Spike Lee and Lions for Lambs, directed by and co-starring Robert Redford. Being the smart guy I am, I thought Cruise should join Spike Lee's film and make that his next project. They seemed like a good fit and I was looking forward to the kind of film a Cruise/Lee partnership would produce.

Of course, he decided to go a different way. According to Variety, Cruise has picked Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs to be his next starring vehicle. Not only that, but the pic will be the first film to go into production for United Artists since Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner took over the studio from MGM a few short weeks ago. Lions for Lambs, scripted by Mathew Carnahan, features three interconnecting stories about a congressman (played by Cruise) who's pursued by a reporter (played by Meryl Streep), an idealistic professor (played by Redford) who attempts to inspire a wealthy student to action and a pair of American soldiers wounded in the Gulf war, one of them a former student of Redford's.

In the end, Lions for Lambs might actually be the best choice for Cruise to take on as his next film. It's been quite awhile since he was in an "important" film with a message like The Firm, A Few Good Men or Born on the Fourth of July. It will probably do him good to get back to his roots and to a time when people thought he actually had some acting talent instead of thinking of him as some pro-Scientology zealot who jumps up and down on Oprah's furniture. Plus, with UA financing the pic, the new Cruise/Wagner mini-studio could already have its first film ready to hit theaters next year. Maybe this Tom Cruise guy is smarter than I thought? At the moment, there's no other casting news to report, but production is scheduled to begin early next year.