Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum movie

[Aragorn]

MSNBC article

Denzel Washington and Tom Cruise will face off in a big-budget adaptation of “The Matarese Circle,” a thriller based on the novel by Robert Ludlum.

Cruise is in final negotiations to take on the role of the Russian spy Vasili Taleniekov, mortal enemy of American intelligence operative Brandon Scofield, to be played by Washington.

......

The “Matarese” storyline follows two arch-enemies who are forced into a distrustful collaboration against a wide-reaching political conspiracy orchestrated by a mysterious organization called the Matarese.

Ludlum drew inspiration from David Rockefeller’s Trilateral Commission in the 1970s. But Cronenberg and “Wanted” scribes Derek Haas and Michael Brandt have updated the timeframe from the Cold War to a contemporary setting.

.....

 

[Hermiod]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

Hmmmmm, sounds interesting.

 

[Captaindemotion]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

If this is updated as well as The Bourne series, then it will be a must-see, especially with Cruise and Denzil on board. Cronenberg is an interesting and surprising choice for director of a movie like this. He's far from mainstream (most of the time anyway). But A History of Violence showed that he can make a good thriller and direct a good action scene. Perhaps the makers of this movie are trying to do a Greengrass, to get a director who's out of the mainstream to make it, thus distinguishing it from your run-of-the-mill thrillers.

 

[Pingfah]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

What is interesting is that, while Cronenberg is mainly considered a fantasy/horror director, the last 3 features he has directed have been dramas or thrillers.

In fact Existenz is the only fantasy type film he has made since 1991's Naked Lunch whereas before that he made 8 horrors in a row.

I sure hope he gets back to the fleshy goodness at some point, although I have been enjoying his recent films.

 

[Electric Coleslaw]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

I've read the book and I don't like the casting at all. Washington I can handle but Cruise as a Russian agent. Will we get the same great accent he used in Valkryie?

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

^ Maybe he can use a British accent like the other Valkyrie actors you're not bitching about?

 

[JacksonArcher]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

Great cast, great director, great source material.

I'm there.

 

[trevanian]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

^ Maybe he can use a British accent like the other Valkyrie actors you're not bitching about?

There's an established tradition of letting British actors sound British when playing Romans or Germans, and letting Americans sound American when playing slaves (see SPARTACUS and BENHUR) ... I don't know of any tradition of having Americans sound American when they're playing Germanic, unless it is channeled over from the UK with Costner mangling a British accent in ROBINHOOD.

So the bitching is absolutely called for in the case of Cruise. As for the rest ... I dunno, Cruise was enough to keep me from seeing the movie, despite the fine group of Brits and Singer who is good some of the time.

 

[Cicero]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

^ He was excellent in Valkyrie, if almost frustratingly (and appropriately) understated.

 

[trevanian]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

^ He was excellent in Valkyrie, if almost frustratingly (and appropriately) understated.

History has given him way too much exposure for me to take him seriously, especially given how little appeal he has for me personally. The only times I buy him is when he plays assholes in TAPS and COLOR OF MONEY, so I'm guessing I need his true colors to show for him to be effective. Then again, if I want to watch jerks more often, I can always look to upper mgmnt at work, so why bother watching movies to see people who seem unpleasant?

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

Why bother watching movies to see people who seem unpleasant? Are you the pot or the kettle? Did Tom Cruise endorse Daniel Craig as Bond?

 

[Captaindemotion]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

I've read the book and I don't like the casting at all. Washington I can handle but Cruise as a Russian agent. Will we get the same great accent he used in Valkryie?

Well, to be fair, Singer took the decision that none of the English or American actors in that movie would speak with mock-German accents.

I was thinking, though, that it's a little ironic that Viggo Mortensen got an Oscar nomination for playing a Russian gangster in Cronenberg's most recent movie, Eastern Promises, with an apparently superb accent (haven't seen the movie), while Cruise probably will either ignore the Russian accent or do some sort of generic Bond villain type one.

 

[trevanian]

Re: Tom Cruise, Denzel Washington, David Cronenberg = Robert Ludlum mo

Why bother watching movies to see people who seem unpleasant? Are you the pot or the kettle? Did Tom Cruise endorse Daniel Craig as Bond?

Compelling characters can be watchable and unpleasant ... what, you only watch movies with heroes wearing white or something? Don't tell me ... you walked out on APOCALYPSE NOW because Martin Sheen killed the bleeding girl, right? Moving on ...

I just don't find Cruise compelling or pleasant; it is probably the feeling other people get from watching Shatner, going by the hatred he used to generate in the 80s and 90s when his name came up. I just don't see why Cruise draws audiences ... I don't see why Craig does either, but Craig at least has some talent. It just isn't a talent for playing Bond.

And as I've said before, you need more than talent for that anyway, because Robert DeNiro would have been a disaster as Bond no matter how fine an actor he is (and as far as that goes, Dalton is still a better actor than Craig, but the dif is that he looked the role too, and he didn't have to play the character as an overaged adolescent, something nobody except Craig ever had to do, and a large part of why CR absolutely sucks.)