March 14th, 2007 -- Written by John Campea
Tom Cruise is well on his way to recovering his reputation with solid business moves within United Artists. If he stays out of the public eye long enough, he may settle into a respectable producer’s role and poke his head out long enough to do some quality films and we can start liking him again. That being said, United Artists has secured a second film to be produced under their banner, and it sounds like a good team.
United Artists toppers Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner have greenlit their second film, an original thriller that Bryan Singer will direct as his next feature.The untitled film re-teams Singer with “The Usual Suspects” screenwriter Chris McQuarrie. Singer and McQuarrie will produce. The drama is the duo’s first original collaboration since “The Usual Suspects.” Set in WWII, the project is similar to “Suspects” in that it is a multi-character ensemble piece. Singer and McQuarrie took the project directly to Wagner and Cruise, who agreed to finance it almost immediately.
The film will delay Warner Bros.’ hope of mounting a sequel to “Superman Returns” in the near future.
I am encouraged to see another thriller with the same quality and storytelling as Usual Suspects, but do I want them to delay the release of a Superman Returns sequel for this?
I know its all trendy for people to bash Superman Returns, but keep in mind, the very elements that were the complaint of the groaning fans are the very parts they intend to remedy in the sequel. I would think that fans would be MORE excited about a Superman Returns sequel instead of assuming it wont be good since they didn’t like the first one.
My worry is that Singer will be too busy with all these other projects that they may opt out due to “scheduling conflicts” (The real ones, not the fake ones that keeps Katie Holmes out of Batman Dark Knight) and find a different director. I am not suggesting that Singer is the ONLY person who can do this, but I would like to see him stay on board with this.
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Agreed. I feel Singer really should do the next Superman too. Now that they finaly greenlit it after the last one not making as much as they wanted. I actualy injoyed Superman Returns, ALLOT. It’s one of my fav comic book movies. True it did lack action and the dialog was scarce making it feel kind of empty, but damn was it directed well and lived up to the originals, story and all. And like you said, all the things that were wrong with it are going to be fixed.
As much as I liked The Usual Suspects back in the day, another Superman film carries sooo much more wait. I know allot of people are dying to see the next one, myself included, even with the last one’s flaws. It still put Superman back on the movie map and back into people’s minds big time. And I know just as many people who have never seen or heard of The Usual Suspects. I love and respect Singer not just as a good director, but as a director among the select few that actualy likes sticking around for a franchise to do more then one film of it. If Fox didn’t screw up his vision of X-Men 3, he would of done it insted of getting that piece of crap Ratner made.
I really hope Singer sticks with it and puts this other film on hold insted. But if not, then I suppose we can respect his wishies to return to a style from his past that worked out really well for him. I didn’t even know he could just up and say he wants to do somthing else before the next Superman that he said he was going to do. Thought he was under a contract. Ohwell, maybe he hasn’t signed anything official yet. Either way he goes I hope it works out for the best.