Tom Cruise Exploring Possibility Of Being Ben Stiller's Next Owen Wilson
Knowing that it might be a while before their agents at CAA can find an acceptable job for his new, still-unemployed wife, Tom Cruise apparently realizes that someone in his household is eventually going to need to work consistently if they plan on maintaining the lifestyle to which they've become accustomed (it would be a shame if he had to replace the solid-gold cuff that explodes in the event of a Holmes escape attempt with a cheaply made one that might turn her ankle green well before detonation), and is now reportedly out trolling for light-hearted parts intended to play against his completely undeserved, career-hampering image as a self-serious browbeater of those under the sway of the pharmaceutical industry. TMZ reports that Cruise has recently chatted with Ben Stiller about the possibility of hooking him up with the kind of buddy role that he usually saves for Owen Wilson:
Insiders tell TMZ that Tom Cruise has been talking with Ben Stiller about starring in an updated version of "The Hardy Boys" at Twentieth Century Fox. Tentatively titled "The Hardy Men" — a comedy that would be directed by Stiller's director on "A Night At the Museum," Shawn Levy ("The Pink Panther," "Cheaper By the Dozen").
While the pair has demonstrated crackling chemistry in a previous artistic collaboration, the buddy formula might implode under the weight of the rewrite required to make Cruise into the obligatory freewheeling foil to the high-strung Hardy Man Stiller would surely play; a screenwriter might score some easy laughs if Cruise would consent to play a Wilsonesque stoner hooked on dangerous street-drugs, but in the end, audiences wouldn't be able to suspend their disbelief that the actor's mind was altered by anything stronger than a handful of vitamins and a dangerously long stint in a sauna.
