Cruise vs Denzel for Cronenberg ?

Last year it was announced that Denzel Washington was signed on to star in the adaption of the Robert Ludlum espionage thriller 'The Matarese Circle', it was later that David Cronenberg came on board to direct. Now Variety has revealed that Tom Cruise is in talks to join the project as well.

Some may remember that last year Cruise and Washington were set to star together in 'The 28th Amendment' but that whole film fell through and sadly remains in development hell.

Cruise and Washington would be going head to head as the plot sees two long time enemy spies, one Russian and one American in the book, forced to team together to take on a shadowy group of conspirators known as The Matarese. Quite how the contemporary updating by writers Michael Brandt and Derek Haas will effect this remains to be seen, but if Cruise is to be a Russian I hope he uses an accent.

Cronenberg has been getting more mainstream with his last two films 'A History of Violence' and 'Eastern Promises', and this is an even bigger step in that direction.

The film is set up at MGM and they are eyeing a start later this year to position it as their marquee movie for 2010. Denzel is up later this year in 'The Taking of Pelham 1,2,3' and has 'The Book of Eli' to make next, while Cruise is expected to next be seen in the 'The Tourist' with Charlize Theron.

Personally I am a fan of both actors and this genre of movie so I am very excited for this one, and while Cronenberg's older stuff is not to my tastes i have enjoyed his last two films, lets hope this one actually happens unlike the previous non-starting Denzel/Cruise vehicle.