Tradecraft: More Details On Cruise's Next Spy Movie

Even though she was sort of awful in the beginning of Taken, Maggie Grace has been cast in another spy movie. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the actress (who was much better on ABC's Lost) has joined Tom Cruise's next picture, the one formerly titled Wichita and thankfully retitled Untitled Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz Spy Movie. The latter title, while obviously temporary, certainly tells a lot more about the project than the former! (I think Wichita, while perfectly fetching as the name of a city, would probably be in the running for worst spy movie title ever.) The trade story provides a lot more details on the film's plot than I'd seen previously, and it sounds kind of great!

The project centers on a lonely woman (Diaz) whose seemingly harmless blind date suddenly turns her life upside-down when a super spy (Cruise) takes her on a violent worldwide journey to protect a powerful battery that holds the key to an infinite power source.

Grace is playing Diaz's sister, who is getting married, excited that Diaz will take the place of their late father and walk her down the aisle.

That battery sounds like a very Eurospyish MacGuffin. I like it. The fact that the trade calls the movie a "spy thriller" and uses the word "violent" to describe Cruise's worldwide journey make me curious about the tone of this film. I'd previously assumed it was more of a romantic comedy, but it's possible that it's a full-on action spy movie. Or perhaps a marriage of the two genres, ala True Lies. It's hard to know from the choice of James Mangold to direct, as he's made a point of dabbling in just about every genre over the course of his career. Whatever the case, that little tidbit of plot description has definitely made me far more interested in this project than I was previously! It sounds like it's got potential...