“The Tourist” just can’t seem to find a destination.  The story–an American tourist drawn into a web of intrigue and danger by a female Interpol agent as she attempts to locate a criminal who was once her lover–originally starred Tom Cruise and Charlize Theron with directing by Bharat Nalluri (”Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”).  Then Cruise dropped out to co-star in “Knight and Day” (formerly “Witchita”) with Cameron Diaz.  In his place came Sam Worthington.  Then Theron split and Jolie came aboard.  A week later, director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (”The Lives of Others”) joined the project.

But now Worthington and von Donnersmarck are both gone over the infamous “creative differences” and Johnny Depp is in talks to take Worthington’s role.  And as for the director, many are scrapping for the gig, including Alfonso Cuaron.  Hit the jump for more details.

Buried in a recent article from Variety was the news that Tom Cruise would be re-teaming with his “Mission: Impossible 2″ director John Woo for Woo’s next film, “Flying Tigers”.  Steve spoke with Woo a couple weeks ago for Woo’s new film, “Red Cliff” which is the most successful film in Chinese history and it’s received positive reviews in this hemisphere as well.  Woo mentioned his next film would be “Flying Tigers” and that it would have the same budget as “Red Cliff” ($80 million) and focus on the friendship between Americans and Chinese soldiers in World War II as they fought the Japanese.  I wonder if this could be an unofficial sequel to “The Last Samurai” but this time Cruise ends up saving the Chinese instead.

Hit the jump to see Steve’s full interview with Woo.  They begin speaking about “Flying Tigers” at the 3-minute mark.

Previously known as “Witchita” and once known as “Trouble Man”, the upcoming Tom Cruise/Cameron Diaz film will now be titled “Knight and Day”, which sounds like a title Kenneth the Page would come up with when pitching a sitcom about a medieval knight transported to modern times and falling in love with a woman with the last name “Day”.  Hit the jump for details on the film and why its potential success may have little to do with its lead actors.

Earlier today, I attended the Los Angeles press day for “An Education”. The film is a coming-of-age story about a teenage girl (Carey Mulligan) in 1960s suburban London and how her life changes after meeting a man nearly twice her age (Peter Sarsgaard). It’s a great movie and something worth checking out.

Anyway, towards the end of my interview with Peter, I asked what he’d be doing next. He revealed he’s about to leave for Boston to be in director James Mangold’s “Wichita” opposite Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. When I asked what character he’d be playing, he’d only say he was Tom Cruise’s foil. Does that mean he’s the villain? I don’t know. But I do know he hadn’t been announced as part of the cast yet. Watch what he said about “Wichita” after the jump:

As we know, when Heath Ledger died, Terry Gilliam chose to complete “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” using Jude Law, Colin Farrell, and Johnny Depp as different incarnations of Ledger’s role.  All three were close friends of the Ledger family, and the film will operate as a sort of tribute while fulfilling its purpose as commercial cinema.  One thing we didn’t know, and as Terry Gilliam recently revealed to Total Film magazine, was that Tom Cruise also lobbied heavily to step into the role as part of a return to relevance akin to his appearance in last summer’s “Tropic Thunder”.

Gilliam refused for one very simple reason: Tom Cruise had no personal connection to Heath Ledger.  More after the jump.

First she was shot in the gut on “Lost’ and then she got “Taken” from Liam Neeson, now Maggie Grace is set to make Cameron Diaz look old and matronly in the new spy thriller from director James Mangold.  Grace has been cast as Diaz’s sister in the feature film which co-stars Tom Cruise… always assuming he doesn’t drop out at the last minute.  He does that a lot lately.  Find out more about the film that was once called “Wichita” after the jump.

Now that Tom Cruise has decided to play a spy in “Wicihta”, playing opposite a spy in “The Tourist” just seemed like overkill.  That meant that director Bharat Nalluri needed to find another actor to play the American tourist done wrong by an Interpol agent in the long-in-development Spyglass thriller.  According to Variety, the role of the titular tourist has gone to Sam Worthington - who can hopefully put all that “Terminator: Salvation” stuff behind him with his role in James Cameron’s “Avatar”.  Charlize Theron  is still attached to play the agent in “The Tourist” which has yet to secure domestic distribution.

Because various sites already reported on it days ago, it’s pretty much old news now that J.J. Abrams will join Tom Cruise as a producer for “Mission: Impossible 4″ or as I’m sure the marketing will try to dub it “M:I 4″ or “M:I-IV” or anything else other than the freaking title because I guess focus groups responded negatively to the words “Mission” and “Impossible”.

To their credit, THR does have a new piece of info.  They note that Paramount (who infamously parted ways with Cruise after the poor box office returns of “Mission: Impossible 3″) wants their fourth “Mission” movie by Summer 2011.  That may prove difficult since Abrams will have his hands full with “Star Trek 2″ (which, considering the rate at which studios want sequels on screens, could come out in 2011 as well).

More after the jump.

Tom Cruise spent twenty years on top. Or almost. From 1986’s Top Gun through to 2005’s Mission: Impossible III, the man was one of the world’s most bankable stars. Then he married Katie Holmes, and it ruined him. That or the couch jumping. Or the scientology. Or the seriousness. Or the fact that he was on top for so long, but came across as awkward and self-serious, and all those bad movies like MI:2 caught up with him, or something.

Maybe he pissed off Steven Spielberg - who was supposedly not amused that TC hurt the War of the Worlds box office with his schtick - but he left Paramount, which had been his home since Top Gun (he worked elsewhere, but they were his base). Ben Stiller helped him by giving Cruise a show-stopping cameo in Tropic Thunder. And though Valkyrie was looking to be a disaster when it moved from an October to February release date. But MGM did a smart thing and put it out in Oscar season. Sure, the film was never meant to be a contender, but it had the pedigree. And so the film did a little over $80 domestic, and a bit more than that internationally. Strange that this might be considered a comeback. But the film attempted to marginalize its star, and surround him with talents.

As we told you back in March, Tom Cruise is planning to reteam with Cameron Diaz for a 20^th Century Fox production called “Wichita”.  If true (and when you’re talking Tom Cruise, you can never be too sure, can you “Edwin A. Salt”?) this would end months of mindless speculation about where the actor would plant his talent flag after his bravura cameo in “Tropic Thunder” and his completely adequate turn in Bryan Singer’s “Valkyrie”.

Just to be clear - Cruise in Wichita is still not official, but apparently that’s OK by Variety.  They’re reporting that writer Scott Frank’s latest draft of the script (once called “Trouble Man”) is receiving a Cruise-approved retouch by director James Mangold and that both Cruise and Diaz are currently in “advanced negotiations” for their parts.  Diaz is still playing a single woman but now the “mysterious man” she bumps into is revealed as a secret agent.  That’d be Tom, I’m guessing.

Fox hasn’t set a release date for “Wichita” (which is good because release dates and Tom Cruise don’t see eye-to-eye lately) but the studio is reportedly aiming for a summer 2010 release.  And suddenly I see why Tom Cruise is interested in this movie!  Summer means big budget and lots of promotion and that man needs a big hit like nobody’s business.