Michael Mann recently dropped out of directing Edwin A. Salt with Tom Cruise attached to begin filming Public Enemies with Johnny Depp for Universal due to Mann’s belief that Salt needed a rewrite and the Writers Strike put a damper on that. So, that left Columbia Pictures with a film starring Tom Cruise and no director. What is a studio to do?
According to Entertainment Weekly the man rumored to fill the shoes is none other than Kingdom helmer Peter Berg. Berg recently directed Hancock for the studio with Will Smith starring and apparently are very happy with the result. The interesting thing about the article is that EW claims the studio has a “solid script from Kurt Wimmer”, which is the same script Mann decided needed a rewrite. I have a hard time believing either Cruise or Berg would get started on a film if the script wasn’t solid and it isn’t as if Mann and his opinion would be a mystery to Cruise or Berg. Mann produced Berg’s Kingdom and worked with Cruise on Collateral, I am sure his script objections won’t go un-noticed.
Anyway, word is that Columbia wants to get rolling on the film by March 2008 so I guess we will see what happens.
As for Hancock, if you haven’t watched the trailer yet do so right here, it has gotten a lot of criticism, but I actually enjoyed it especially when Smith tosses the whale back into the ocean.
