Here’s some exciting news: Deadline reports that Tom Cruise is set to star in a new movie from Alejandro Iñárritu for Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment. This would be Iñárritu’s first English language movie since The Revenant, which hit theaters nearly a decade ago.
Plot details are being kept under wraps, but it’s said that Iñárritu co-wrote the script last year with Sabina Berman as well as his Birdman co-writers Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolás Giacobone. It was reported yesterday that Tom Cruise was looking to return to more serious, dramatic fare with an award-winning director, and Alejandro Iñárritu certainly fits the bill. The movie will also be the first project that will fall under Cruise’s strategic partnership with Warner Bros.
According to Deadline’s report, Cruise arranged a meeting with Iñárritu as soon as he learned of the director’s new project. The actor quickly signed on as soon as the meeting concluded. In addition to starring in the movie, Cruise will also produce alongside Iñárritu.
After spending the last decade in the realm of big-budget action movies such as Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning and Top Gun: Maverick, Cruise has been eager to challenge himself with different types of movies. It also doesn’t hurt that Iñárritu has a decent track record of delivering Academy Award nominations for the actors in his movies. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts both received Oscar nominations for 21 Grams; Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi were nominated for Babel; Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, and Emma Stone each received nominations for Birdman; and Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy were both nominated for The Revenant, with DiCaprio taking home the win.
It’s been twenty-five years since Cruise’s last Oscar nomination for acting, which saw him up for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia. It’s likely a safe bet that Iñárritu’s new movie will give him another shot at Oscar glory, but aside from all that, it’s always exciting to see Cruise do something different.