Romantic thriller “The Tourist” has become something of a revolving door in recent months. First, Tom Cruise, who had been flirting with the lead role, left in favor of the similar James Mangold film “Wichita,” to be replaced by rising Australian star Sam Worthington (“Avatar”, “Terminator: Salvation”). Now, his supposed co-star Charlize Theron has also departed the project, along with director Bharat Nalluri (“Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day”). Spyglass are pretty hot on the project though, which is set for an early 2010 start, and are already moving on, going in to negotiations with Angelina Jolie to replace her.
The draft we have, by Julian Fellowes (“Gosford Park”) and Jeffrey Nachmanoff (“Traitor”), is a sort of sexy Hitchcockian thriller, very much aimed at adults — along the lines of “The Thomas Crown Affair,” although Cruise brought Christopher McQuarrie (“Valkyrie”) with him on to the project, so it’s since been revised.
There seems to have been a plot rewrite too — The Hollywood Reporter sums it up as “an American tourist who, on behalf of Interpol, goes undercover to entrap a former lover who’s a suspected global criminal,” which doesn’t quite gel with what we’ve read. With Theron and Nalluri’s departure, and the addition of Worthington and Jolie, our suspicions are that it’s becoming less classy, and more action-oriented, possibly following the failure earlier in the year of the similarly-toned “Duplicity.” Jolie (pictured above in the upcoming spy movie “Salt”) does seem like a more obvious fit for the part than Theron, but this is tempered by the fact that the actress has never, ever made a good movie. There’s no word on the new director, but one is expected to appointed very soon. If it’s a convention helmer, you’ll know which direction this one is headed. I.e., not the place any of us want it to go.