Writer Michael Bacall Talks About Tom Cruise's Les Grossman Movie

Screenwriter Michael Bacall has been on a role lately. Though it may not have hit the box office hard, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World is a modern cult classic and a spectacularly written film. In addition, Project X made some decent bank for a low budget comedy and 21 Jump Street is getting some great buzz leading up to its release later this month. Now Bacall's attention is likely on the developing sequel to the latter police comedy, but the writer is also still crafting that movie focusing on Les Grossman, the fictional super producer that Tom Cruise boisterously brought to life in Tropic Thunder a few years ago. More below!

Though taking a character who only had small but effective moments in Tropic Thunder sounded risky and a bit on the "Saturday Night Live" side of things, Bacall, and Cruise hismelf, aren't taking the story of this flick lightly. The writer told THR:

"I felt really great about that from the beginning because I loved the character. Tom had an incredible idea on how to tell this story, and give it some real emotion and heart. And as soon as he hit on that idea, it was off to the races. But I feel really good about that project, and I hope that it will happen."

As for the tone and style of the film, he does note that it won't just be a straight-up 90-minute version of Grossman's obnoxious anger from Tropic Thunder. He elaborates:

"I think people would be disappointed if that character didn’t carry around that explosive rage that we associate with him, and that’s what makes his performance so enjoyable. But none of us feel like the movie could sustain what was a 90-minute Les Grossman tirade. So we want to try and get a little bit of a glimpse of where that rage is coming from The guy will be a force of nature, but we want to have some kind of emotional connection to him.”

That's good to hear, and it quells my fears about the film just falling flat on its face. Of course, the issue still remains that Tom Cruise is a busy guy, and there's no telling just how soon we'll see this project gets off the ground. This film might have been better a couple years ago, but as time goes on, the character is becoming less relevant, and less fresh in audiences' minds. There's going to need to be some kind of refresher if people are going to pay money for a ticket to see Tom Cruise in a bald cap and beefy arms. Of course, I'm always going to be interested in Tom Cruise doing comedy again.

1 Al on Mar 6, 2012

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