Further to Owain's post on Tuesday - Paramount Pictures have now confirmed that development has begun on the Tom Cruise starring Les Grossman movie, in conjunction with MTV Films. Tropic Thunder director Ben Stiller (who may eventually direct this) and Stuart Confield are on board to produce, and Scott Pilgrim Vs. The WorldsMichael Bacall will write the tale of the bald, fat cliché of a Hollywood mega-producer. Bacall is actually a face you might recognise (guy on the left), having appeared in both of Quentin Tarantino's last movies Death Proof and Inglourious Basterds but it's screenwriting where his true passion lies and he has several scripts in development for the likes of Sean Penn and Tobey Maguire. With the buzz for Pilgrim, and now being hired to write a Tom Cruise movie (no matter how silly the film will probably turn out to be) - it looks like he has struck the big time. Stiller says in a press release as if Grossman was a real guy;
"Les Grossman's life story is an inspiring tale of the classic human struggle to achieve greatness against all odds. He has assured me he plans to, quote, F**king kill the sh**t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done. I am honoured to be working with him.
Er, alright Ben. Paramount Film President Adam Goodman joins the fun and says in the statement,
"Everything I learned in this business, I've learned from Les. I started out as his assistant, and from the first day he threw his desk at me when I got his lunch order wrong, I have loved him like a father. I am forever grateful to Ben and Stuart Cornfeld and their ability to secure his highly-coveted life rights."
We're very lucky to have a quote from Grossman himself (oh yay)
To quote my great friend Kirk Lazarus, I dont read the script, the script reads me.'"
We liked it in Tropic Thunder and yes the MTV skits were amusing, and yes it was nice to see Tom Cruise in the fat suit but it feels like they're trying to stretch out a one trick pony on this one, and we don't like stretched out ponies... And when OWF said a year or two ago that we wanted to see Tom Cruise lighten up and go the comedic route for a couple of films, we didn't really envisage two massive parodies of himself with this and his Mission Impossible schtick in Knight & Day. Seems to us like he is trying a little hard to be funny, and a little hard to please.
