Misc News

[architect]

Cruise Locked for 'One Shot'

Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions have closed a deal with Tom Cruise to play Jack Reacher in One Shot, the thriller based on the Lee Child bestselling book series about the former military policeman-turned-drifter. An early fall start date has been set for the film, which will be directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Cruise will then move right into the lead role of the Joseph Kosinski-directed Oblivion at Universal early next year.

n One Shot, Reacher investigates a case in which a lone sniper murders five victims before being captured. Reacher discovers it's more than a simple open-and-shut case. Cruise and McQuarrie teamed on Valkyrie, McQuarrie did some script work on Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol, and he also did early script work on The Tourist when Cruise was going to be the film's star. While the novel’s is set in the Midwest, the film is expected to shoot in Pittsburgh.

Don Granger and Cruise will produce through Mutual Film Company and C/W Productions. Skydance's Ellison and Dana Goldberg are producing as is Gary Levinsohn and Wagner.

[roxthefox]

TC was going to be the lead star for The Tourist? Best career move ever to reject it. What else has McQuarrie done?

[serin]

Company to lens Tom Cruise film in Loyalhanna Township


By Jeff Himler, BLAIRSVILLE DISPATCH
Friday, September 2, 2011

'One Shot' author: Cruise, city a good fit




A major Hollywood production (ONE SHOT) involving Tom Cruise appears to be headed to the Saltsburg area for a few weeks of filming, with the crew planning to use the recently closed Saltsburg Elementary School as a temporary base.

At a special Wednesday meeting, the Blairsville-Saltsburg School Board approved a short-form lease agreement granting Paramount Pictures the right to use the school at 250 Third St. in the Kiski Flat area of Loyalhanna Township.

District Superintendent Dr. Tammy Whitfield said the school is to be used by the production company during location shooting at the nearby Hoover Stone Quarry for the film "One Shot," starring Tom Cruise. According to district solicitor Gary Matta, the company is planning to use the school for about a week and a half next month.

Business Manager Eric Kocsis said the district is still negotiating payment to be made for the lease.

A staff member at the stone quarry office declined to comment.

The lease agreement supports reports on industry websites that "One Shot" is likely to film in Pittsburgh this fall as a production of Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. The sites indicate that English actress Rosamund Pike has been tapped to co-star opposite Cruise with Christopher McQuarrie as director. McQuarrie co-wrote the screenplay for "Valkyrie," the 2008 film in which Cruise portrayed a German officer who attempts to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Pike's roles have included a "Bond girl" in "Die Another Day," Jane Bennet in "Pride and Prejudice" and Miriam Grant-Panofsky in "Barney's Version," released last year.

"One Shot" is said to be based on a novel by Lee Child, one in a series of crime thrillers involving the character who is to be played by Cruise -- Jack Reacher," a former military investigator. The story teams Reacher with a defense attorney -- portrayed by Pike -- to track down the shooter in multiple killings.

It won't be the first Cruise film to be shot in western Pennsylvania. He starred as a football player in a fictional "rust belt" steel town in the 1983 film "All the Right Moves," which included scenes shot in the Johnstown area.

www.pittsburghlive.com/

[serin]

'One Shot' author: Cruise, city good choices for film


By Jason Cato, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, September 1, 2011





Tom Cruise isn't 6-foot-5 and Pittsburgh isn't Indiana, but the actor and city are perfect choices for the first Jack Reacher novel to become a movie, author Lee Child says.

"I'm very, very happy it's Pittsburgh," says Child, a British-born writer who lives near New York City. "Pittsburgh is a great-looking city."

The film will be based on "One Shot," a novel Child wrote in 2005 that is the ninth book involving Reacher, a former military policeman who works as a private detective. The 16th novel in the series, "The Affair," goes on sale on Sept. 27, a week before Cruise and company begin filming.

Katie Martin Kelley, a Paramount Pictures spokeswoman in Los Angeles, confirmed the film will shoot here, beginning in October. Kelley would not reveal its budget.

The novel begins with a sniper fatally shooting five people in an unnamed Indiana town. Although it appears that a former infantry specialist is to blame, Reacher investigates to uncover the truth.

Lee had nothing to do with selecting Pittsburgh or the cast and was not involved in writing the script, although he read it.

The film's production crew found one location in Pittsburgh for the opening scene but later found a better one and rewrote the script to fit accordingly, Child says.

"I think it's going to look fantastic," says Child, who wouldn't reveal details.

In the books, Reacher is a West Point graduate who became part of a special military police unit that investigates tough cases involving servicemen, especially Army special forces members. He leaves the Army as a major and wanders the country, often helping in criminal cases.

The author describes Reacher as a 6-foot-5, 250-pound muscular man with blue eyes and blond hair.


Regardless, Child says he isn't concerned that the actor's physical attributes don't measure up to the fictional character's.

"I'm really happy with all of it," he says. "I'm very happy about the people making the film."

He described producer Don Granger ("Snakes on a Plane") as "halfway between being a scholar and a fan of the Reacher series" and says director Christopher McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects," "The Way of the Gun" and "Valkyrie") understands the spirit of the character and story.

"We're three men with one brain," Child says.

Child has been to Pittsburgh, including in December 2010 to speak at the Drue Heinz Lecture Series. He plans to visit the set during filming.

"It's going to be very interesting to see what the result is," Child says. "If it goes well, and I think it will, there should be more. It's going to be a good, old-fashion thriller movie."



Read more: 'One Shot' author: Cruise, city good choices for film - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

[architect]

What else has McQuarrie done?

~cough~TheUsualSuspects~cough~

[roxthefox]

LOL Archie, what I meant is, what else has he done besides Usual Suspects (and Valkyrie of course).

[architect]

WAY OF THE GUN is the other film he's directed.

(haven't seen it)

[architect]

WAY OF THE GUN is the other film he's directed.

(haven't seen it)

[architect]

Rosamund Pike talks One Shot

[architect]

One Shot Script Review

Let's get this out in the open right away. Christopher McQuarrie can write. After reading last week’s offerings, you forget what real writing looks like. This is it. The man has such a visually exciting style, that even mundane scenes have an energy to them that you just don't see with other writers. And he does some controversial things to get there.

So what is this script about? It's actually a fairly basic plot. I don't know what I was expecting, but I guess I thought since Cruise was making it a potential franchise, there was going to be more action. But this story is more a procedural. It starts off with a mysterious man pulling up into a parking garage overlooking a heavily trafficked pedestrian area, pulling out a sniper rifle, and randomly shooting five people dead.

When the Feds investigate, they trace the shooting back to a man named James Barr. But when they bring him in, he insists he had nothing to do with it. When they try to get a written confession from him, he gives them three words instead: "Get Jack Reacher.”

The rest contains spoilers so YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

[architect]

Werner Herzog Talks One Shot

Word came down last month that Herzog would co-star in One Shot, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s adaptation of the bestselling thriller by novelist Lee Child. The ninth in the series of Child’s thrillers featuring ex-military investigator Jack Reacher, One Shot centers around the tough guy’s attempt to hunt down the cold-blooded sniper responsible for five murders in a small town, and as if the project didn’t attract enough notoriety for having Tom Cruise as its leading man and co-producer, McQuarrie intensified the spotlight by casting Herzog as Reacher’s trigger-happy adversary known simply as The Zec.

The role will supply Herzog with his highest-profile screen performance yet, one about which we spoke today in New York.

So I’ve read that you’re acting again?

Yes, I am acting again. I’m fairly good as an actor when it comes to roles of hostile or dangerous guys, or violent and debased and dysfunctional characters. And of course, since this is a big Hollywood film, they have studied my performance in other films. So I was not involved in any casting; I was just invited.

Why do you think that was?

Because I’m good! You see, when it comes to an expensive film, you can’t fool around and make a choice of somebody who is known as a filmmaker. If you are bad as an actor, it may really damage the film. So they apparently took a very close look — I mean, the director, the producer, Tom Cruise — they took a good look at what I am onscreen as an actor.

Cruise is an interesting actor to me — someone who’s never directed, but who’s instead worked with some of the foremost filmmakers of the last half-century: Kubrick, Scorsese, Coppola, Spielberg, and many others. Have you met him?

Yes.

What do you think of his regard for filmmakers? Do you think his wanting to work with you in this context was because he probably wouldn’t have the chance otherwise?

No, he does not work with me. He works with the director, Chris McQuarrie. I’m only a partner in crime onscreen. But let me try to describe him: Yes, he has worked with some very, very good — very good — serious filmmakers. But what strikes me is that sometimes you can tell from five miles’ distance: “This is a professional man. He means business.” He’s extremely well-prepared, very good to work with, very respectful — a very kind human being. And you can tell, strangely enough, from five miles’ distance.

McQuarrie aside, being on this set is probably as close to working with you as Tom Cruise is going to get, considering the films you make.

Not necessarily, because the kind of films he has been into — like Mission: Impossible — I’m convinced that… I don’t even know who made Mission: Impossible. Who directed Mission: Impossible?

The first one was Brian De Palma.

OK. Brian De Palma is certainly the better director than me.

Really?

If I had tried to make Mission: Impossible, I wouldn’t have come up with a film as intense as Brian De Palma. I mean this very film, for example. There are other people who do that better.

Fair enough. In any case, you’re looking forward to this?

Yes! I’m going to have a good time. And I love Pittsburgh. My first time ever in America was Pittsburgh; I chose Pittsburgh. I left my scholarship that I had after four or five days, and then I was literally homeless. I was picked up by an absolutely wonderful family and became part of a household of six children between 17 and 27. I was adopted — I was literally adopted from walking in the street a the outskirts. So I have seen the best of America. I’ve seen it right away.

SOURCE

[architect]

On Set with Tom Cruise

My wife and I just returned from visiting on the set of the new Tom Cruise movie ONE SHOT being filmed in Pittsburgh, Pa. It was an educational and enlightening experience on many levels and reminded me of the incredible leadership and teamwork it takes to make a movie. In fact, making a film serves as the most potent metaphor I know for both leadership and teamwork. From the outside, a motion picture set appears to be controlled chaos but when the curtain is pulled aside, it is anything but.

Like any successful organization, it all starts with the leadership. The vision, the energy, the drive and the commitment or lack thereof, will always flow from leadership. In the case of ONE SHOT, the energy and direction stems from three sources. The first is the producer, Don Granger. He began working on this project years ago and through persistence, created the playing field. He secured the rights from the best-selling author Lee Child and convinced Lee to let him pursue creating a film from his book. Don is also the one who assembled the creative team and manages the budget – and he is brilliant at his job.

Don then brought aboard Oscar-winning writer/director, Christopher McQuarrie and secured Tom Cruise as the lead. This team is magnificent to watch. Tom’s incredible energy and generosity as an actor ignites the entire cast and crew for hours on end. Chris’s excellent direction guides and inspire the actors to excellence.

It really was an inspiring site to behold. Even I came away with an infusion of creative energy.

SOURCE

[architect]

One Shot moves to December

Paramount has shaken up its release schedule. The studio has moved the Christopher McQuarrie-directed Tom Cruise-starrer One Shot into the holiday 2012 slot, hoping to replicate the adaptation of the Lee Child bestseller mirrors the success of Mission:Impossible–Ghost Protocol.

SOURCE

[roxthefox]

MI4 was more of an 'event' film that already had a fanbase built into it, due to its franchise. Not every movie can replicate its success. They should have stuck to the summer time slot, but that's just my two cents.

[roxthefox]

Wait wait, so we're getting TWO Tom Cruise movies this year?