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.