Here is some news courtesy of Jeff Sneider and his The InSneider newsletter. It’s a real doozy …
None other than Tom Cruise is in talks to appear in Quentin Tarantino’s “The Movie Critic.” This will come down to Cruise’s busy schedule, but the Hollywood star is said to be rearranging his schedule to accommodate a supporting role in the movie.
Cruise will be busy most of the year with ‘Mission: Impossible 8’, although he’ll try to fit in Tarantino’s film either around or after reshoots have finished on the action movie. Tarantino isn’t supposed to start production on “The Movie Critic” until early 2025.
Back in 2019, Tarantino spoke about Cruise on Josh Horowitz’s HappySadConfused podcast
He’s a great guy and we really hit it off. [A collaboration] could happen on something else.
Cruise was one of the first actors Tarantino thought of for the role of Cliff Booth in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”. The character was eventually played by Brad Pitt, who won an Oscar for his performance.
Last week, it was reported that Pitt had joined the cast of “The Movie Critic.” Although no other official casting has been announced, the “ensemble” film has been rumoured to include all kinds of talent, including the likes of Kurt Russell, Samuel L. Jackson, Leonardo DiCaprio, Paul Walter Hauser and John Travolta.
Cruise, 61, and one of the last remaining old school movie stars, along with Pitt, has been hooked into making only franchise-based action the last decade. He’s burying his talents as a dramatic actor. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, many tend to forget just how great of an actor Cruise can be. You can’t watch a film like “Magnolia” or “Collateral” without noticing his acting chops.
It’s not surprising that Cruise wants to be a part of Tarantino’s final film — he’s never worked with him and “The Movie Critic” is going to be a major movie event, whenever it gets released (2026?)
Set in 1977 California, “The Movie Critic” is said to revolve around a critic who writes movie reviews for a porno rag called The Popstar Pages. Tarantino described the protagonist of the film as “a guy who really lived but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag […] He was as cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle might be if he were a film critic,” the director added.
Edward Berger seems to have settled on what comes next. His Lance Armstrong biopic, starring Austin Butler, is now holding casting calls, with production eyed for January.