Per a press release from Universal announcing a new deal with hot screenwriting duo Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, Cruise is attached to play the famed vampire hunter in a new film from the decade-old studio.
“Alex and Roberto are extraordinarily talented writers and producers who know the value of a great story in building successful tentpole films,” Universal chairman Adam Fogelson and co-chairwoman Donna Langley said in a statement. “They have been a major part of some of Hollywood’s biggest movies and television shows in recent history, and we’re eager to have them build on that success at Universal.”
Tom Cruise is easily one of the top five most recognizable and sought after actors in the world. If you don't know him from his numerous blockbusters than you probably know him from his crazy shenanigans such as jumping on the couch while on the Oprah Winfrey show or his views of religion and strict allegiance to scientology. Tom Cruise is no doubt a strange fellow, but the brilliant performers always are. However, the Tom Cruise story starts in an unexpected manner, especially considering the icon he has become. Tom Cruise was born into an extremely religious family and grew up with his eyes on one goal and one goal only. No it wasn't acting, performance art or performance of any kind. Growing up, Tom Cruise dreamt of becoming a priest and devoting his life to God. However, while in high school, he abandoned those dreams, dropped out and moved to New York to pursue acting. What came next was what a whirlwind that ended with Tom Cruise being one of the highest paid actors not just in Hollywood but the entire world. He has commanded a salary of 15 million dollars or more for recent films such as "Mission Impossible" and "War of the Worlds"; quite an amazing ending for a story that started with such humble beginnings. However, along with the triumphs, there are always failures and for Tom Cruise those failures come in the form of cinematic duds. The two best examples of Tom Cruise's cinematic duds are the bigbudget films "Valkyrie" and "Collateral".
The Hollywood caste system began to crack in the 1950's, when Kirk Douglas, the father of Michael Douglas went independent, and formed one of the first independent film companies called Bryna, for his mother. They produced the "Vikings", "Spartacus", and "Seven Days in May". The so called Studio system was now dead. Power shifted to the individual actors, who became BRAND NAMES in their own right.
Two developments began in the 1960's. The Hollywood studios would be taken over by corporations, and then reacquired by giant multinational corporations seeking world-wide influence. The second development was that the stars began to exercise their power. Giant multinationals like Sony, Newscorp, and Viacom hated the fact that stars had so much power. In the last ten years, A-List actors like Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, and Robert Redford started to receive profit participations, which the studios only gave begrudgingly.
At first it didn't matter because Hollywood accounting is such that somehow the studios could always show a loss on the movie. The stars got wise to that very quickly, and started taking front end participations, a percentage of the ticket when movie goers bought their tickets. In my 35 years on Wall Street, I participated in financing many movies, and I have to tell you that nobody ever made money on the backend. No matter how big the movie, somehow the movie always lost money when it came to the backend participations.
Set for a June 5 street date, the official soundtrack for the upcoming movie will include 20 songs featuring film stars Tom Cruise, Julianne Hough, Alec Baldwin, Diego Boneta, Russell Brand and Catherine Zeta-Jones.
Music by Def Leppard, Poison, Journey, Twisted Sister, Bon Jovi, Joan Jett, Foreigner, Night Ranger, REO Speedwagon, Pat Benatar and Whitesnake are among those covered by the cast.
“Taking classic, beloved rock anthems and seeing them through the unique perspective of the characters in the film was such an exciting prospect for me in directing Rock of Ages,” said Rock of Ages director Adam Shankman. “We had a phenomenal cast who performed these songs in such a powerful way — adding depth and meaningful imagery to the film. I was lucky to have a partner in Adam Anders who, better than anyone working today, understands how to take popular songs and seamlessly repurpose them to tell a story with unparalleled originality and success.”
Asked what surprised him the most about Tom, Simon replied: "That he's quite normal, you know, he's a real family man. When Katie and Suri visited the set, they're just like a normal little family and you see them doing normal things. I don't know what I expected them to do. Suri's a very sweet unprecocious little girl, she just does what kids do, she's not walking around in high heels and shouting at people, as some people would have us believe."
Simon also said the odd ball reputation Tom has is unjustified and was very impressed with how seriously he takes his job.
Speaking on Daybreak, Simon said: "I think the people that have the strongest opinions about him [Tom Cruise] are the people that haven't met him. The fact is he's a guy, he's a human being and that's it. I mean he's incredibly concentrated and he's amazing to work with because he's so collaborative and it means a lot to him that the films are good. That's why he hung off the tallest building, because he wanted people to see that it was him."
No comments:
Post a Comment