We already knew that Alejandro G. Iñàrritu’s next film would star Tom Cruise, but this project just got even more enticing.
Iñàrritu has assembled what Deadline is describing as a “murderers’ row cast”. That, it most certainly is. The four-time Oscar-winning filmmaker’s untitled movie for Warner Bros has added Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Michael Stuhlbarg, Jesse Plemons and Sophie Wilde to its cast.
Iñàrritu co-wrote the screenplay in 2023 with Sabina Berman, Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone. The synopsis is fairly cryptic, but it’s quite clear Cruise is the lead here, and it’s no doubt going to be positioned as an Oscar vehicle for him.
As far as we know, the film centers “on the most powerful man in the world, who embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s savior before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything”.
Last year, Cruise heard Iñárritu was shopping around his next project, the actor moved quickly to get a meeting with the Mexican filmmaker. The result could be Cruise’s first film with Warner Bros in the non-exclusive deal they signed together a few months ago.
Now, this is the direction we all want Cruise to take his career into next. He wasn’t joking around when he stated that he wanted to start working with auteurs again. Let’s just hope that he continues on this path and doesn’t hop on board another ‘Mission: Impossible’ or ‘Top Gun’ movie.
Meanwhile, Iñárritu is coming off 2023’s “Bardo,” the most personal film of his career, which also happened to be his most ill-received by critics. Otherwise, Iñárritu‘a career has been a stellar one with acclaimed films such as “Amores Perros,” “21 Grams,” “Babel,” “Birdman” and “The Revenant.”
No word yet on who the DP will be, but Iñárritu likes to work with cinematography wizard Emmanuel Lubezki. However, that last one, “Bardo,” was shot by Darius Khondji. Regardless, I’m sure Iñárritu will have one of them lens the film, or maybe even former collaborator Rodrigo Prieto.
Criterion's December lineup has some great additions to the library, but the title that jumped out at me is Werner Herzog's "Grizzly Man," which officially joins the Collection on December 8.