This is probably not how Warner Bros. wanted to head into the Memorial Day weekend. With the studio seemingly to finally get their long developing "The Man From U.N.C.L.E." movie going, with Guy Ritchie attached to direct and Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander coming in supporting roles, they’ve just lost their leading man.
That’s right, Tom Cruise has bailed on the movie, with Deadline revealing he’s focusing on "Mission: Impossible 5" instead. It seems Paramount want ‘Impossible’ shooting by the end of the year, and Cruise tends to be super involved in every detail of that franchise, so scheduling in ‘U.N.C.L.E.’ turned out to be an… impossibility! So what’s Warner Bros. to do? They will want the movie to shoot this fall but replacing an actor of Cruise’s caliber isn’t easy at all. An actor who can play to overseas markets the way he can, and command the budget this sort of international action pic needs, well…the list isn’t very big. We’d wager his exit means the budget is going to have be examined again, depending on who winds up replacing him.
Hammer is still committed to the movie, though there is no mention of Vikander. Can ‘U.N.C.L.E.’ recover? It’s certainly a possibility, and it wouldn’t the first time a movie had to stall, switch up some creatives, and get rolling again. We’ll have to see what shape it will be in if that eventuality comes to pass.
Its a shame tom has bailed out , I think they should put it on hold for a while and
bring in owen wilson as illya kuryakin and team him up with tom . as i think they would make a great team and bring in some of the fun factor like the original cast of Robert Vaughn and David McCallum.
I would like to see him do a smaller film, possibly with someone demented like Werner Herzog, Harmony Korine, Nicolas Winding Refn. He needs to shake off his persona somewhat.
Smart move. He can only do a few big budget films before needing to replenish his box office cred with another MI film. If he's going to do a big budget spy film, might as well make it the next MI film. I am wondering who will direct MI:5. I doubt Paramount wont be too keen to go with a complete newcomer or upstart, given the success of MI:4. My guess would be either Ruben Fleischer or Matthew Vaughan.
I also think this film will be stuck in development hell for a while, unless they dramatically revise the budget and settle for another actor. RDJ, Leo, Depp and Pitt won't be signing on, at least I am pretty sure.
uuuugh, God! Tom Cruise need to stop doing those sci-fi/spy/heroic holes. He is repeating himself in every movie, always playing the same character. Ok, Tom, we already know you passed 50 with the testosterone level of a teenager, now move on and PLAY A DIFFERENT ROLE! I'm so glad he dropped from this movie…
Bradley Cooper !
whats happened to sherlock holmes 3 if guy ritchie is directing this film
Top five replacements:
1: RDJ
2: Denzel
3: Leo
4: Johnny Depp
5: Brad Pitt
Let Robert Vaughn and David Mccallum reprise their roles… they would be great in this
And how is this in any way a bad thing?
Cruise made "Jack Reacher" absolutely impossible to enjoy. Cruise's baggage is massive. He needs to step away from the generic action franchises and play someone other than his generic action hero.
Good. Now all we need is for Ritchie to bow out and it's jake.
I'm more inclined to see the remake now that Cruise is out.
I was looking forward to this, to bad Tom's out… I have no idea who's going to take his place, maybe Butler is a possibility (knowing that this is an action movie and Butler recently had a good show with "Olymous has Fallen"…