Paramount has shuffled the deck on a couple of upcoming Tom Cruise projects and it looks like the actor is ready to test his star power this holiday season.
Previously slated to hit on December 16th opposite Guy Ritchie‘s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game Of Shadows,” “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” will now hit on December 21st five days before David Fincher‘s “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” lands on Boxing Day. That will be quite the holiday weekend at the box office. It poses an interesting challenge now for Sony who so far are marketing the downer blockbuster as The Feel Bad Movie Of Christmas. Will audiences buy into the cynical sell or just say “fuck it” and go see Tom Cruise swing from skyscrapers and blow shit up. We wonder… Certainly, Cruise is bringing a world of fire power with him as ‘Ghost Protocol’ co-stars Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Josh Holloway, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg and more in the Brad Bird directed film that actually looks pretty fucking great. However, there is still lots of time for dates to move around, and we expect this won’t be the last bit of jostling before the holidays.
Meanwhile, another Cruise vehicle and potential franchise, the adaptation of Lee Child‘s Jack Reacher novel “One Shot” will now land on February 8, 2013, a frame perfectly suited to action driven pulp. Set to be adapted and directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the ninth book in the Child’s series, finds our hero Reacher drawn into the case of a military sniper accused of five murders and discovers a twisty cover-up along the way. The big sticking point for many is the casting of Cruise at all in the role of Reacher, who is described in the books as standing 6’5” (as opposed to Cruise’s 5’7”) and weighing around 250 lbs, with sandy blonde hair and a domineering presence. We’ll just have to see. “One Shot” will shoot later this year before Cruise heads over to Joseph Kosinski‘s “Oblivion.” [Deadline]