Tom Cruise Tosses the Salt In Favor of Starting a Food Fight

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on August 12, 2008

Tom Cruise at the Premiere of Tropic Thunder For reasons known only to him and his dietitian, Tom Cruise has decided to pass on Edwin A. Salt, the CIA spy thriller that has also seen at least four big name directors come and go in the past year. Instead, The Hollywood Reporter claims he’s circling Food Fight, “a warmhearted comedy about a snooty New York chef who is forced to cook meals at a school cafeteria.” Absolutely screams “Tom Cruise vehicle” doesn’t it?

Food Fight is written by Adam Brooks, who also wrote and directed the better than expected Ryan Reynolds film Definitely, Maybe. Cruise is no stranger to comedy, but he’s definitely an infrequent visitor. Not counting cameos in Austin Powers in Goldmember and a prematurely revealed scene-stealing performance in Tropic Thunder, Cruise hasn’t played comedy since 1996’s Jerry Maguire. Beyond that it’s another thirteen years before you reach 1983’s Risky Business. It’s a shame that he doesn’t do more comedic roles because he’s actually pretty damn funny when he wants to be. Go ahead and do a YouTube search for “Tom Cruise Matt Lauer” if you don’t believe me.

As mentioned above, Cruise’s defection from Edwin A. Salt is just the latest in a long list. Terry George, Michael Mann, and Peter Berg have all been attached to direct at some point, with the chair currently occupied by Philip Noyce. Cruise’s absence created a void that has reportedly already been filled by Angelina Jolie. The newly retitled Edwina A. Salt (that’s not true… yet) is currently undergoing draft revisions regarding the gender/name change. The film is about a CIA agent wrongfully accused of being a double agent who must race to find the real traitor. This plot has been explored previously in the very cool Kevin Costner film, No Way Out.

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Maggie Van Ostrand

I think Cruise knows he's on a roll with Tropic Thunder talk of his standout perf.
Why should he do another spy flick if he can do another comedy? Right now, he
needs to get his fan base rebuilt.

I'm just sayin'

Dr Hugh

Tom tosses salad.

Eva

The only fans Cruise has lost are the ones who troll the internet. Of course this is fueled by media - much like this blog - which makes it seem like "everyone" doesn't like Tom Cruise. There is no way that people like Ben Stiller (who has made how much - gazillions - in his movies?) would hold him in such high regard and name him as the "go to" guy when it comes to movies. What most people don't get is that Tom Cruise is not an actor. Tom Cruise is a movie maker. He makes movies and he likes to help people. And even though Tom Cruise cares about people, I'm sure he doesn't much care about the 20% of the population who may not like him. It's the 80% that count. And by the way, no one, I repeat no one will go see a movie that they don't think they will like - even a Tom Cruise movie.

Tom Cruise Tosses the Salt In Favor of Starting a Food Fight

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