Tom Cruise - Crazy Actor, Crazy Busy

Honest to God, I never jumped on the "Fuck Tom Cruise!" bandwagon most of the known-world did after Mission: Impossible III under-performed during Summer 2006 despite grossing $400 million.

The only thing that miffed me about Cruise was his going after Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants upon giving birth to her second child. When he literally has another human being ripped outta his lower region, then he can make an argument.

That asside, I had no issues with the guy and felt that people were going after him 100% because it was in fashion to do so. Wow, he jumped on a couch on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Big fucking deal.

And I knew that all of the trash-talk would disappear the moment the dude apologized, calmed down and (most importantly) headlined a good movie that made money.

And that it did after his infamous Tropic Thunder cameo and (more so) the surprise box-office success of Valkyrie last Christmas. Like or lump it, Cruise is back and attached to a number of forthcoming projects. The question is what will he choose next?

According to Variety:

The frontrunners for his next film appear to be the Dreamworks drama "Motorcade," to be directed by Len Wiseman, followed by Spyglass remake "The Tourist" (with Charlize Theron), to be helmed by Bharat Nalluri, and Fox action comedy "Wichita" (with Cameron Diaz), which James Mangold will direct. Also still in the mix is MGM's "The Matarese Circle," which potentially matches Cruise with Denzel Washington and helmer David Cronenberg.

Interestingly Cruise has opted out of the Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman penned 28th Amendment which I personally thought was going to be his Valkyrie follow-up.

In fact, the last update I got on that one was Warner Brothers was hoping to have the film in theaters for Summer 2011. Granted, I always had that one pegged as a Fall release myself (i.e. early November-ish!) Also absent was any mention of The Hardy Men, which Cruise and Ben Stiller have been attached to for years now.