Big Bad Tom

How does a Hollywood star pick a script? They’ll tell you “I just go with whatever moves me.” Movements aside - what about when you’re Mr Tinseltown himself?

Tom Cruise has completed Mission: Impossible III and barring the usual world promo tour, TC is an actor for hire. So, you’re wondering what Tom is perusing in between anti-natal classes? TF can reveal the scripts that have made it from his agent’s doormat to the TomKat breakfast bar…

3:10 To Yuma is a remake of a 1957 western with Walk The Line director James Mangold at the helm. The story unfolds around a rancher who accepts the job of holding a captured outlaw until the next train can take him to court in Yuma.

Cruise became juiced about the project after Collateral scribbler Stuart Beattie turned in a re-write of the original script - from 2 Fast 2 Furious writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas. Word has it that TC is interested in playing the outlaw.

The Cruiser is also flicking through Two Minutes To Midnight - an Adrian Lyne drama from the pen of The Longest Yard writer Sheldon Turner. It follows a palm-dampening day in the life of a lawyer whose wife has been kidnapped. Cruise would play the divorce court attorney who must find his spouse by 11:58 or kill himself to save her.

Another possibility for Cruise is Fool’s Gold – a touching drama about a couple whose romance is reignited during a treasure hunt. Hitch helmer Andy Tennant is ready to step behind the megaphone, using a script from Anaconda 2 scribblers John Clafin and Daniel Zelman.

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