Tom Cruise rumoured to star alongside Scarlett Johansson in The Gauntlet remake directed by Christopher McQuarrie

According to GiantFreakinRobot, Tom Cruise is rumoured to star in a remake of Clint Eastwood’s The Gauntlet, which Christopher McQuarrie will direct. Other scoopers, such as EmpireCity, have added that Scarlett Johansson will be starring alongside Cruise, which would mark the first time the two actors have worked together.

Nothing has been officially announced, so take all of this with a grain of salt for now, but both Tom Cruise and Scarlett Johansson have previously stated that they would love to work together. At the premiere of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Cruise was certain that it would happen. “Look, I’ve watched her career her whole life,” Cruise said. “She’s enormously talented, very charismatic. It’d be fun. She could do everything. She could do comedy, drama, action, suspense. She’s someone that really draws you in on the screen, on camera. So absolutely, it’s gonna happen.“

The Gauntlet was released in 1977 and starred Clint Eastwood (who also directed) as Ben Shockley, an alcoholic cop who falls in love with a prostitute whom he’s been assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix for her to testify against the mob. The original film is full of plenty of action, chase scenes, and vehicular mayhem, so you can certainly see where it could be given the Cruise treatment.

McQuarrie has previously teased that he’s got a “gnarly R-rated” movie with Cruise planned once they finish with Mission: Impossible 8. “There’s a movie that Cruise and I are talking about doing next or in some probable next, that Erik [Jendresen] and I developed together – what has been referred to on the internet as The Gnarly Movie,” McQuarrie said last summer. “It’s that movie that they’re all asking for, and that we want to do.” The Gauntlet could very well be that project.

Mission: Impossible 8, previously titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two, is currently filming and will hit theaters on May 23, 2025. It’s said that this will be Cruise’s final Mission: Impossible movie, so fans are very curious to see what his next project will be. If that winds up to be an R-rated remake of a gritty ’70s action thriller… count me in.