When Tom Cruise signed a strategic partnership with Warner Bros. back in January this year, it came out of the blue. Everyone had just assumed he was set up at Paramount, home of Top Gun and Mission: Impossible. It turned out he didn’t have a deal in place at Paramount since 2006, which effectively made him a free agent.
Getting Cruise was a considerable coup for Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav. The deal will see Cruise work with movie studio chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy in jointly developing and producing original and franchise theatrical films, both starring him and using his clout as a producer.
This isn’t a first-look deal, and Cruise can still work with other studios, but he will have offices on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. He has a history with Warner Bros. Edge of Tomorrow, Rock of Ages, Magnolia, Eyes Wide Shut, Interview With the Vampire, and Risky Business were all under the Warner banner.
Obviously Top Gun and Mission: Impossible are off the table and will remain projects with Paramount. So what sort of projects could Cruise look at as part of this new partnership?
The guys at Giant Freakin’ Robot have somebody on the inside with a good track record who has given them some news. As part of the deal, Cruise is said to be circling a remake of a 1977 Clint Eastwood action thriller.
The Gauntlet was directed by Eastwood, and comes from his seemingly co-dependent phase with Sondra Locke. During this period they starred together in The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976), Every Which Way But Loose (1978), Bronco Billy (1980), Any Which Way You Can (1980), and Sudden Impact (1983), as well as this movie.
It co-starred Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney, and Mara Corday.
Eastwood played a down-and-out alcoholic cop who falls in love with a prostitute (Locke), whom he is assigned to escort from Las Vegas to Phoenix for her to testify against the mob.
Cruise would play Eastwood’s lead role, Detective Ben Shockley. Usual Cruise collaborator Christopher McQuarrie is expected to direct.
The original movie features pretty big action set pieces, so there is potential for a lot of Cruise’s favorite pastimes as they include helicopters, cars, bikes, and a hastily armored bus. It also features that wonderfully grimy aesthetic that 70s America had.
What form would a Cruise-led update to The Gauntlet take? As Crusie is arguably the last proper movie star we have left, it might be fun finding out.
Check back every day for movie news and reviews at the Last Movie Outpost
