After the MTV Movie Awards I speculated that Tom Cruise showed up as Les Grossman not just for shits and/or giggles, but rather as a trial balloon for a Grossman spin-off movie. And lo and behold, I was right.
You’ll recall that Grossman is the movie studio honcho that Cruise played in Tropic Thunder; ensconced in a fat suit, a bald cap and a ton of foul language, Cruise’s short appearance was a scene stealer. Now Paramount is giving him his own movie. The press release:
HOLLYWOOD, CA (June 9, 2010) – Paramount Pictures and MTV Films announced today that they are set to develop a movie around mega-producer Les Grossman. The announcement comes on the heels of Grossman’s groundbreaking and visionary production of the soon-to-be Emmy® award-winning 2010 MTV Movie Awards Sunday night. Tom Cruise, along with Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld of Red Hour Films will produce and have secured the life rights to Grossman.
Grossman, best known as a mega producer, has most recently mentored talents such as Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. In 2008, Grossman was introduced to the masses by Stiller in the comedy “Tropic Thunder” where the famed producer had a cameo playing himself. Said Ben Stiller: “Les Grossman’s life story is an inspiring tale of the classic human struggle to achieve greatness against all odds. He has assured me he plans to quote, ‘F**king kill the sh*t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done.’ I am honored to be working with him.”
When asked what the screenplay was about Grossman responded: “To quote my great friend Kirk Lazarus, ‘I don’t read the script, the script reads me.’”Adam Goodman, Paramount Film Group President said, “Everything I learned in this business, I’ve learned from Les. I started out as his assistant, and from the first day he threw his desk at me when I got his lunch order wrong, I have loved him like a father. I am forever grateful to Ben and Stuart Cornfeld and their ability to secure his highly-coveted life rights,”Tom Cruise is said to be in talks to portray Grossman in the film.Michael Bacall (“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”) will write the script.
So what the heck will the movie be? PG-13 is a safe bet, so don’t get too excited for anything hyper-raunchy. I wonder if Les will lose weight to get Tom out of the suit for a portion of the movie, or if maybe Tom Cruise will show up as himself. Ben Stiller is involved, so maybe Derek Zoolander can appear. It would be kind of amazing if Ron Burgundy was in it too; Paramount could jump start all their moribund comedy sequels in one fell swoop.
And expect there to be lots of essentially toothless Hollywood satire. I just hope this isn’t a riches to rags to riches tale.