Tradecraft: Cruise Forsakes Ludlum For Diaz

Remember all those spy movies that Tom Cruise was weighing as his next star vehicle? Variety reports that the actor has passed on David Cronenberg's adaptation of the Robert Ludlum thriller The Materese Circle (co-starring Denzel Washington) in favor of another one of the many, many other spy projects he was considering: Wichita, opposite Cameron Diaz. Says the trade, "Cruise will play a secret agent who pops in and out of the life of a single woman." The article also promises "several action scenes." Besides Wichita and Materese, Cruise had been considering The Tourist and the Black List favorite Secret Service actioner Motorcade. The cryptic last line of the Variety story teases that "it is possible that Cruise might do one of the other projects down the line." So what does that mean? Do all of those projects get held up because of Cruise? I really, really hope that The Materese Circle doesn't get waylaid by this. I'm really excited for that one, and Washington is definitely a big enough star to carry it himself. Of course, the story calls for a Russian agent as well. I'd rather see the part go to Viggo Mortensen (who's done a very admirable Russian accent for Cronenberg before). The trade does not mention the ITC remake The Champions in this story. Presumably Cruise is still mulling that one for next year, as we heard back in February.