The Tourist Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Johnny Depp Might Be 'The Tourist'
Filed under: Action », Drama », Thrillers », Casting », Sony », Scripts », DIY/Filmmaking », Newsstand », Tom Cruise », Angelina Jolie », Johnny Depp »
Sony's thriller The Tourist just keeps sending its talent packing. Originally set to be a vehicle for Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron, it shifted gears last month and was re-cast with Angelina Jolie and Sam Worthington. But once again, The Tourist finds itself without travel arrangements for a male lead as Variety reports that Worthington is out due to "creative disagreements" and Johnny Depp is in. Depp is still in talks to play the hapless American tourist, and with the way this film is going, one can't assume it's finalized. But if it is, it might just be the casting coup of 2010. A Depp-Jolie pair-up has been something dreamed about by a lot of producers and studios over the years. Once upon a time, rumor even had them attached to play Cathy and Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. People want to see them having onscreen sex. It'd be the hottest thing since ... well, Brad Pitt and Jolie having sex onscreen. (And off. Hey, I'm just being honest. There was a reason everyone wanted to see their offspring.)
The Tourist is also on the hunt for a director. Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck was circling the project, but departed alongside Worthington over those whispery creative differences. Reportedly, a lot of directors are interested, including Alfonso Cuaron. While shake-ups can be be a sign of a bad film, I'd like to think that a thriller that winds up with Jolie, Depp, and Cuaron came together exactly as it was meant to.
Jolie's 'Tourist' Set for 2011 with 'Lives of Others' Director
Filed under: Action », Drama », Thrillers », Casting », RumorMonger », Tom Cruise », Angelina Jolie », Remakes and Sequels »
Angelina Jolie's pet project The Tourist might finally have a director, according to Variety. Internationally acclaimed director and writer Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck "hasn't formally entered into negotiations," but it's looking likely that the man behind the critically hailed film The Lives of Others will be hopping behind the camera for this 2011 release.Jolie reportedly turned down the sequel of Wanted in favor of The Tourist (although the rumors of her return of the sexy tattooed assassin remain at large) but she was holding out on officially signing on to The Tourist until Spyglass found a director she approved of.
Strangely enough, Tom Cruise was originally set to costar but dropped out in favor of Knight & Day with Cameron Diaz. Jolie's latest film, Salt, was originally set to star Tom Cruise, but then he backed out, the writers did a quick fix-me-up on the script, and voila -- here's Evelyn Salt!
In any case, this remake of Anthony Zimmer is about an Interpol agent hot on the trail of a former paramour and criminal; the spy makes use of an American tourist to help find her. Sam Worthington (Avatar) costars as the tourist, and according to /Film, Jolie plays the ex. On the other hand, Variety is reporting that she plays the Interpol agent. Hollywood Reporter is taking the safer route and not saying what Jolie's role will be. Yikes!
2011 sounds like one of those things where the movie keeps getting pushed back more and more until the stars and director are all like, "Whatever, I have no idea what's happening with that any more." But remember when Angelina Jolie provided us guilty pleasure movies like The Bone Collector? I would be happy to see her as the spy or the criminal; what do you think?
Is Angelina Grabbing Charlize's 'Tourist' Bags?
Filed under: Action », Thrillers », Casting », Deals »
A lot can change in a year. Back in 2008, Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise were getting ready for the U.S. remake of The Tourist. Now Miss Theron is out, and The Hollywood Reporter's Risky Biz Blog reports that sources say Angelina Jolie is in talks to replace her. But don't worry -- this won't result in the most epically awkward and strange pairing of all time. (Can you imagine Jolie and Cruise getting busy with sex and espionage?) See, Cruise has since left the project as well, and Sam Worthington has signed on -- an actor who is quickly making a big name for himself between Terminator : Salvation and the upcoming Avatar.The original, Anthony Zimmer, focused on a regular person pulled into a mess between a criminal, the mob, his mistress, and the law, because he resembled this criminal. When Theron signed on, however, the remake was said to focus on an "American vacationer who gets sucked into a dark world of espionage when an Interpol agent taps him to help her catch a sneaky bad guy." Not quite the same thing, but with all the changes going on, who knows how it will turn out? What Risky does say is that her role is "one-part seductress, one-part action," so it sounds like the final product will come out somewhere between the two plots.
But that's not the only changes coming to this long-in-gestation project. It seems that Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day helmer Bharat Nalluri is also out; so much for seeing him jump from retro comedy to international intrigue. I could ask who you think should replace the director, but it's not like this project is taking easy-to-guess jumps. Tom Cruise to Sam Worthington. Charlize Theron to Angelina Jolie... Stay tuned to see how it all turns out! But in the meantime, what do you think of the changes?
Tom Cruise Meddling Leads to Pricey Rewrites
Filed under: Celebrities and Controversy », Scripts »
Oh, Tom Cruise ... you make it so hard not to bash you. Last time I wrote about ol' Tommy, I focused on the excellent, insane rumor that he and John Travolta wanted to redo Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. But this one doesn't seem to be a rumor. Variety reports that while screenwriters "have been taking haircuts on every deal," Tom's script doctors are making a ton -- sometimes as much as $250,000 a week for 2-6 weeks. The job: Take Cruise's notes and hone the scripts for his upcoming movies. The pressure is on to continue Tom's post-Tropic Thunder buzz!
The doctors and projects in question: Scott Frank is changing up Wichita so that Cruise can be an action hero, Richard Curtis made some changes to Lost for Words, and Paul Attanasio is flipping rewriting David Cronenberg's script for Matarese Circle. Furthermore, those free of script doctors are not immune to Tom's notes: Billy Ray "continues to hone" Motorcade, while Christopher McQuarrie does the same with The Tourist.
Actors always seem to meddle a bit with their scripts, but this takes that to a new level. And really, it hurts my heart to think that Tom Cruise is guiding Cronenberg's vision, or rather, tainting it. And why on earth are they paying so much to have a struggling star get his way? Thunder might have helped win him back favor, but not hundreds of thousands of dollars worth.
Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie, Together Forever
Filed under: Action », Drama », Foreign Language », Thrillers », Deals », Mystery & Suspense », United Artists », Warner Brothers », Scripts », Newsstand », Tom Cruise », Comic/Superhero/Geek », Remakes and Sequels », War »
Okay, maybe Tom Cruise and Valkyrie screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie won't be together forever ... but they are in for a very long haul. Variety reports that McQuarrie is penning no less than three projects for Cruise to star in. The first up is likely to be The Tourist, which has Cruise and Charlize Theron attached as the leads. A remake of the French thriller Anthony Zimmer, the original script was penned by Julian Fellowes. McQuarrie is quickly rewriting it so that the film can begin shooting by March.
The pair also might be returning to World War II, as McQuarrie and Mason Alley are teaming up to write Flying Tigers, the real life story of a volunteer fighter squadron that was formed to assist the Chinese in fighting the Japanese during WWII. Cruise isn't formally attached, but he has been itching to do another fighter pilot movie since the days of Top Gun.
But the most intriguing film on the McQuarrie-Cruise slate is the UA project The Champions, which McQuarrie is penning and producing alongside Guillermo del Toro. Based on the British television series about super-powered government agents, it's now being developed for Cruise to star in. It was inevitable that Cruise was going to want in on this whole "superhero" trend -- the aura around his Tropic Thunder costar Robert Downey Jr. was espcially hard to miss. How could he not want some of that? Remember, he's already attached to Sam Raimi's Sleeper, so he's obviously waking up to the trend and franchise potential of superpowers. Well, best of luck to McQuarrie and Cruise -- may the relationship be a fruitful one.
Charlize Theron Recruits Tom Cruise in 'The Tourist'
Filed under: Thrillers », Casting », Tom Cruise », Remakes and Sequels »
He was once the hottest thing on the planet; she was most recently a secret selling point of a summer blockbuster. Will a first-time teaming of Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron melt the universe? If negotiations get finalized, they'll be united in awesomeness in the upcoming thriller The Tourist, according to Variety.
Cruise is set to play the titular role of an American vacationer who gets sucked into a dark world of espionage when an Interpol agent taps him to help her catch a sneaky bad guy. Don't you hate when that happens? If only I could count the number of times I've been recruited while on vacation to assist a gorgeous, highly-trained government agent do her job. Theron would play the agent, a woman with a past romantic history with the wily master criminal. I must ask again: why do all the beautiful ladies always fall for the irredeemably corrupt yet charming bad boys?
My guess is that Theron uses Cruise to make her old boyfriend jealous, but I haven't seen Anthony Zimmer, the French original that serves as the basis for The Tourist. Maybe that doesn't matter, because the original's plot has evidently been changed around. In Anthony Zimmer, the female lead was not a law-enforcement officer but instead the criminal's current mistress.
Will Tom have hidden talents that blossom only when forced into the role of a reluctant warrior? Will Charlize fall for a typical American tourist dressed in Bermuda shorts and black socks? Will sparks fly between Tom and Charlize? Time will tell; production is slated to begin by next March under the helm of director Bharat Nalluri (Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day).
Tom Cruise Thinks About Becoming 'The Tourist'
Filed under: Thrillers », Casting », Tom Cruise », Remakes and Sequels »
Having just watched Tropic Thunder last night, my head is half full with Tom Cruise's performance. I won't spoil it, but I will say that he's got more than just a brief blip in the film, and at times, the Scientology stigma that's plagued him lately just dropped away. Of course, that led me to the conclusion that he needs more comedy to get his career back on track, but while he IS starting a Food Fight, he's also looking for more spy action.The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's in negotiations to star in the remake of the French spy thriller The Tourist. This is the feature that Bharat Nalluri signed on to direct in June, that focuses on an American tourist who becomes a pawn in a female Interpol agent's dangerous game. Basically, a money launderer changes his name and face, but this tourist looks like the guy, and is brought into the mess and set up as the bait.
Personally, I wish he'd just stick with the laughs right now, but what do you think? Would Cruise make good bait? And check out our recent What Should Cruise Do Next Poll where 47% of you currently feel he should do a comedy.
Bharat Nalluri Will Direct 'The Tourist'
Filed under: Deals », Scripts »
Last October, Warner Brothers picked up the rights to a book in the works by Olen Steinhauer called The Tourist, a story focusing on a spy who is falsely accused of murder and has to clear his name. And now we're getting another movie called The Tourist. However, this one is based on the French thriller, Anthony Zimmer, and Variety reports that Bharat Nalluri -- the man who helmed Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day -- will direct it. Talk about confusion -- a movie based on another movie, but shares the same name as yet another movie.Casanova director Lasse Hallstrom was originally set to direct the film, but left the project a while ago. Now Nalluri will take on Julian Fellowes' (Gosford Park) script, which focuses on "an American tourist who finds his life in danger when a female Interpol agent uses him as a dupe to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair." It's sort of like a Dave / Moon Over Parador film -- Zimmer is this money launderer who changes his face and voice, and a common man who looks like Zimmer is pulled into the mess as bait.
Production on the film is set to begin late this summer, or early fall.
Warner Brothers Visits 'The Tourist'
Filed under: Thrillers », Deals »
Because there can never be enough thrillers, and there's no point waiting for the book to come out before you want to adapt it, we've got word of the next upcoming book that's already been picked up for feature treatment. The Hollywood Reporter has posted that Warner Brothers nabbed the movie rights to an upcoming book by Olen Steinhauer, a two-time Edgar Award nominee, called The Tourist. Only in "early manuscript form," it's said to be similar to John le Carre and Graham Greene, and it focuses on the typical fare of the spy who is falsely accused of murder and risks everything to clear his name.The producers for this little project will be none other than Smoke House's George Clooney and Grant Heslov. The company has been pretty busy lately, getting projects out. There is Leatherheads, the Clooney-directed film that has just hit post, White Jazz, the James Ellroy adaptation that's being tackled by Joe Carnahan, and they're also developing an adaptation of Farragut North, a play by Beau Willimon. Considering the fact that Clooney sometimes helms these productions, I wonder if this will be a cut-and-dry production gig, or if he'll get extra-involved. Whatever the case, we've got to wait for both the book and the screenplay to be written before anything else.
Natasha Henstridge Joins The Tourist
Filed under: Thrillers », Casting », Mystery & Suspense »
Back in August, Martha had the news that Ewan McGregor and Hugh Jackman had signed to co-star in The Tourist. The story follows a man who is introduced to an underground sex club by an enigmatic "friend" who may not be who he appears to be -- are they ever? It's no surprise that things turn sour when the club may be involved in a young woman's disappearance.Variety announced that Natasha Henstridge has joined a cast that also includes Oscar nominee Michelle Williams, Maggie Q, and Robert "Toshi" Kar Yun Chan. There is no word on Henstridge's character but since she has made a career out of being "the hot girl" it really doesn't take much imagination to guess that she will most likely spend most of the film half-clothed. Lately, Henstridge has been steadily working in TV with parts in Commander In Chief and a slew of TV movies and mini-series. Henstridge really never managed to hit the A-list when it came to movie projects and I don't think she will ever fully live down the Species franchise, but this seems like a pretty high profile drama, so it might be her shot at some better parts in the future. Considering this is the same actress who said, "yes" to Ghosts of Mars; I'm pretty sure they couldn't get any worse. The Tourist is still shooting on location in New York so it should be a while before we get a release date.
[via ComingSoon.net]
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