Today’s movie quiz: How many Tom Cruise secret agent franchises is too many? According to Tom himself, the number is two, because he’s now decided to drop out of The Man From U.N.C.L.E. at Warner Bros. to focus instead on his favourite fran-child, the Mission: Impossible series.
So now there is a Hero Wanted sign back up in the production offices for U.N.C.L.E., as Guy Ritchie reads what will probably be a “Cruise ankles UNCLE” headline in Variety and shakes his fist at the bad mojo from the movie gods.
It’s just the latest setback for the U.N.C.L.E. adaptation, which aims to take the basic concept of the 1960s spy series – in which Robert Vaughn and David McCallum played agents fighting the evils of THRUSH (one more comment about special cream and we are turning this website around, no joke) – and turn it into a big spectacle in the style of M or Sherlock Holmes. Steven Soderbergh and George Clooney were attached for a time, before Clooney’s medical woes saw him drop out and take Soderbergh with him.
The Lone Ranger ‘s Armie Hammer is still aboard for the film, so Warners and Ritchie only really have a new star to find ready for a shoot this autumn. Start your casting suggestions now here or over on Twitter…