Tom Cruise's Next Move: Foul-Mouthed Movie Exec
June 10, 2010 — -- Les Grossman is going big time.
After reviving the hot-headed, filthy-mouthed, hip-hop-loving movie executive at the MTV Movie Awards, Tom Cruise will reprise his "Tropic Thunder" character in a full-length movie.
Paramount and MTV Films announced late Wednesday that they are developing a movie based on Cruise's role. Cruise will star in and produce it, along with "Tropic Thunder" co-star and director Ben Stiller.
Stiller invoked Grossman's profane proclamations in a statement released Wednesday.
"Les Grossman's life story is an inspiring tale of the human class struggle to achieve greatness against all odds," he said. "He has assured me he plans to quote 'F**king kill the sh*t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done.' I am honored to be working with him."
No wonder: Grossman's the man of the moment. At Sunday's MTV Movie Awards, Cruise, in character, shimmied out on to stage, hips jerking, arms waving, looking every bit like the dorky dad at the Bar Mitzvah desperately trying to get down, driving the 13-year-olds off the dance floor in droves.
It was hilarious. And for the first time in a long time, it got people talking not about his beliefs, not about his behavior but about him.
The 47-year-old actor is attempting to re-establish himself as a box-office behemoth and remind audiences that hey, he's not just the weirdo who jumped on Oprah Winfrey's couch, told Matt Lauer "You don't know the history of psychiatry, I do" and claimed Scientology cured his dyslexia. He's dancing with J. Lo at the MTV Movie Awards. He's riding motorcycles and shooting guns with Cameron Diaz. He's a movie star, really!
Convincing audiences of that has been Cruise's real mission impossible. Once Hollywood's go-to action star, Cruise has seen his big screen productions eclipsed over the last few years by grainy Internet videos of him at Scientology ceremonies, accepting the organization's "Freedom Medal of Valor," saluting founder L. Ron Hubbard, and talking about how the religion changed his life. His latest major movie roles in the commercially successful but critically questionable "Valkyrie" and the utter flop "Lions for Lambs" shot him further away from "Top Gun" territory.
