Tom Cruise is eyeing new projects, now that Mission: Impossible: III is about to hit theaters and his demon spawn is secure inside Katie Holmes’ well-audited belly. The most interesting one is James Mangold’s remake of the classic western 3:10 to Yuma, which we just told you about yesterday. If Cruise did appear in the film I’m afraid he would take the Glenn Ford, bad guy role; while I do defend Tom’s acting talent in general, I just don’t think he’d be a very good Wild West outlaw. Now if the film was updated and the Glenn Ford character became a scarily intense cult leader, this is dream casting.
By the way, there’s no evidence that this film will be a western. I see that most of us are assuming it will be, but I think the basic conceit of 3:10 to Yuma could be transferred to any time period. Just look at Outland as the greatest space western of modern times (eat that, Browncoats).
3:10 isn’t the only film Cruise is interested in. The excitable actor is also considering Adrian Lyne’s Two Minutes to Midnight, in which a lawyer’s wife is kidnapped. The lawyer is told that he must find his wife by 11:58 or she’ll be killed. Cruise has apparently asked that the threat be changed so that she will be dosed with Ritalin. Don’t you know it’s a street drug?
The final project Cruise is looking at is the least likely of all, since it has nothing to do with clocks: Fool’s Gold would be about a divorced couple who get back together over the course of a treasure hunt. Perhaps they are searching for a jewel – and maybe it’s of the Nile.
At any rate, I am sure we will find out what the next Tom Cruise film is once Mind Head clears it for him.