Thor 2's Brian Kirk To Direct Tom Cruise Rodeo Picture PAPER WINGS

Game of Thrones director Brian Kirk was surprisingly hired (though we are hearing the deal isn't quite sealed yet... but it will be soon) to direct Thor 2 at Marvel a few weeks back but news today suggests he may be trying to get another film off the ground before he throws the hammer back at Chris Hemsworth. Variety reports that Kirk has entered talks with Sony to direct Paper Wings, a Oscar baiting rodeo romance movie that Tom Cruise has been developing for years as a potential starrer. Cruise has long wanted to play the leading role of the rodeo champ who falls in love with an aspiring country singer, which at one time had the attachment of Reese Witherspoon as an obvious attempt to re-strike the magic from her Oscar winning turn in Walk the Line - though we hear she has long moved on from the project. Paper Wings actually dates back to 2005 when Dante's Peak writer Leslie Bohem and producer Marty Bowen first originated the idea and then set it up at New Line a year later but then financial problems at the studio and the changing of hands to the new ownership at Warner Bros completely derailed development. Last year the film was known to be back on and a table read even happened with Tom Cruise, Will Smith (whose shingle Overbrook Entertainment are also producing), JadaPinkett Smith and actors Anna Kendrick, Milo Ventimiglia, Chad Michael Murray, Eric Dane, Tate Donovan, Tom Skerritt, Tom Arnold and Johnny Galecki at the Saddle Ranch Chop House in Hollywood but apart from Cruise's attachment, no actor was officially hired. Presumably script re-writes were needed and now they are looking at hiring a director. Kirk would replace the talented Gabriele Muccino (The Pursuit of Happyness, Seven Pounds) who was hired last year but is busying working on other things. Cruise has handpicked Kirk as his choice to direct... perhaps because he watches a lot of t.v. (Irish born Kirk has helmed Dexter, Boardwalk Empire & Luther but no films yet) a huge recommendation on the guy's CV. The timing of this deal is extremely curious, of course. Cruise is about to star in Chris McQuarrie's adaptation of Lee Child's Jack Reacher novel One Shot that will keep him busy for the rest of the year before moving on to Oblivion with Joseph Kosinski. By the time he has shot both movies, Kirk will be well underway working on Thor 2 (due July 26, 2013) - so one simply can't see how Cruise/Kirk can make this movie together for the next two years unless a deal for Thor 2 isn't as far down as we thought for the director. Interesting to see how this develops, but unless Kirk/Cruise are thinking long term in the future, we don't know how this deal is going to work.