In the Warner Bros. film, Cruise would play U.S. president Ben Cahill who discovers that a secret organization (run by Denzel Washington) has controlled the U.S. government since WWII. And, like any good secret committee that secretly runs the government, this hidden power structure assassinates potential troublemakers to serve its own needs. The President makes the discovery about what’s going on and finds himself in the firing line.

The screenplay was written by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci.

Hey, it was just a matter of time before Cruise became President. I actually think this one sounds pretty good. Plus, it’s got Denzel in it.

There are no fights in Hollywood that are too big that money can’t ease the tensions. Cruise is coming off his worst showing in two decades with Lions For Lambs and is looking for a hit. Early buzz on his WWII film, Valkyrie, hasn’t been good and the film has already been pushed back several times. It’s no wonder Cruise would look to Mission: Impossible as a money making machine. A fourth film in the series would almost certainly do well on the world market.

Cruise, of course, is no longer a part of the Paramount family after his fight with Redstone led to a parting. After Cruise’s deal with Paramount ended, he and business partner Paula Wagner struck a deal with MGM to revive the United Artists banner. On Tuesday, however, Redstone said that he has no objections to Tom Cruise starring in another M:I movie for Paramount (which is owned by Viacom).

“I consider Tom Cruise a great actor and a good friend,” Redstone said. “And if Paramount decides to move ahead with him, I will not object.” He added that the decision was “up to Brad Grey, who runs Paramount.”

Paramount apparently feels like it’s a good idea as they’ve begun talks with Cruise to star in a fourth film. There’s no word on whether or not there’s a script in play for a Mission: Impossible 4 or if there is any sort of story.

Seven Pounds is from Gabriele Muccino, who was also the director of Smith’s hit drama The Pursuit of Happyness which, interestingly enough, also starred Will Smith’s son, Jayden, as his son in the film. It is being reported that Connor won’t have to work quite as hard in Seven Pounds as Jayden did in that film as he will appear mostly in photographs and will not have a speaking part.

Joining Smith and the young Cruise in the “emotional story of a man who will change the lives of seven strangers� are Rosario Dawson, Woody Harrelson and Barry Pepper.

Moore has written extensively for TV and film, with feature credits on the upcoming The Thing as well as previous credits on Mission: Impossible II (on which he worked with Cruise and Wagner), Star Trek: First Contact and Star Trek: Generations. Moore was also a writer-producer on the “Star Trek: Next Generation” TV series and is the co-creator, writer and exec producer on the new “Battlestar Galactica,”

Original sci-fi, it seems, is on the rise and United Artists could use a hit trilogy. Their first release under Cruise’s leadership was Lions For Lambs which was a huge box office disappointment. Their next release is the WWII thriller, Valkyrie, which has already been delayed several times and is now set to open next February.

The bad fortune for this film has existed almost since day one. First the film was banned from being filmed in Germany due to Cruise’s involvement with Scientology which the Germans consider a cult. Then footage was destroyed during processing which had to be reshot. After that, ten extras were hurt trying to figure out how to ride in the back of a truck.

Perhaps no bad luck has befallen the film like the bad luck of having your release date pushed back to President’s Day 2009, though. That’s right. Valkyrie is now set to be released on February 13, 2009. That means that the Tom Cruise film is no longer in the running for blockbuster or Oscar status. In fact, it will probably have a hard time even making any money with that release date.

While I understand the studio might not be too comfortable with Tom Cruise right now after Lions For Lambs became his worst showing at the box office in two decades, but what has director Bryan Singer done to piss them off? Sure, his last film, Superman Returns, might have pissed all of us off, but it made a lot of money for his employers. I think there must be more to this story. I’ll keep my eyes and ears open.

The full trailer actually looks really funny. Sadly, Ben Stiller is probably the least funniest actor in the trailer. I’m sure he’ll do his Ben Stiller thing and that’ll be good if you’re in to that. I’m actually hoping he’ll stretch a bit and try to do something different for a change. It doesn’t really look like it, though.

Tropic Thunder is about a group of spoiled actors who think they’re filming a movie about the Vietnam war must fight for actual survival when their fed-up director and writer decide to dump them in the middle of a real war.

The film stars Ben Stiller’s, Robert Downey, Jr., Jack Black, Nick Nolte, Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson and features cameos by Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, and Tobey Maguire.

Tropic Thunder is set to open on August 15, 2008.

Most of the press for this film so far has come from the fact that Owen Wilson had to drop out of his cameo in it due to his suicide attempt last year and the fact that Robert Downey, Jr. is playing an actor who is so committed to his work that he decides to play a character originally written as a black man…as a black man…by dying his skin and using makeup to make himself appear to be black.

It seems that a lot of the media is trying to make a big deal out of the whole white person playing a black person thing, but I really don’t see the problem. We obviously can’t judge the context of the part without seeing the film and those people who have seen a rough cut of the film (including black people) have had nothing but good things to say about it. I think it’ll turn out to be a non-issue.

At any rate, the film doesn’t open until late summer, but the studio went ahead and released an early teaser trailer for the film. It doesn’t tell much so don’t get too excited.

Tropic Thunder Teaser Trailer

The film also stars Nick Nolte, Jay Baruchel, and Brandon T. Jackson and features cameos by Tom Cruise, Matthew McConaughey, and Tobey Maguire.

Tropic Thunder is set to open on August 15, 2008.

Bryan Singer is directing Tom Cruise in a script by Christopher McQuarrie and Nathan Alexander. “Valkyrie” will hit theaters on June 28, 2008.

Valkyrie is set for release by United Artists on June 27, 2008. The actors in the photograph below are, from left to right: Kevin McNally, Christian Berkel, Bill Nighy, Tom Cruise, Terence Stamp, David Schofield and Kenneth Branagh.

You can learn more about each of the characters here. Tom Cruise plays Col. Claus von Stauffenberg, the aristocratic German officer who led conspiracy to bring down the Nazi regime and end the war by planting a bomb in Hitler’s bunker after learning about the Nazi’s extermination of so many Jews.

You’ve probably heard about the movie in the news because the Germans are all pissed off that Cruise is playing one of their heroes. Apparently, Germany views Scientology as some sort of cult (hey, who doesn’t really?) and they’re all bent out of shape about a vocal Scientologist portraying someone who wanted to kill Hitler and end WWII. I really don’t know what they’re so mad about. If hate can’t unite us then what can? Besides, did you hear the Japanese complaining when Tom made that Samurai movie?

And Cruise looks disturbingly similar to the real Col. Claus von Stauffenberg when you compare their profiles. I mean, it’s really strange.

Oh yeah, we also can’t forget that some of those German extras fell off a truck while filming this movie. Come on guys. We ask you to do one little thing…