This is a shocker. With only months to go before production starts, Tom Cruise has dropped out of Warner Bros.’ film version of the 1960s series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The studio is now rushing to find a star to act alongside Armie Hammer.
Deadline just reported that Cruise wants to focus on Mission: Impossible 5, which just got a writer. Cruise is also producing with Paramount and Skydance and they hope to start working on it before the end of 2013. Warner Bros., which already has a script and has hired Sherlock Holmes director Guy Ritchie to direct, is aiming to start filming this fall. Between M:I 5 and U.N.C.L.E., Cruise opted for the established franchise, which got a huge boost from Ghost Protocol in 2011.
The decision has forced Warner Bros. to move at full speed to find a replacement. Hammer was hired in April and it sounded like the long-gestating project was going to get made without another speed bump. The project has been in the works for years, with Steven Soderbergh interested at one point. He dropped out and WB picked Ritchie to helm.
Deadline notes that Hammer is still committed to play Illya Kuryakin, who was played by David McCallum in the original series. Cruise was to play Robert Vaughan’s Napoleon Solo.
Cruise is still working with Warner Bros., though. He stars in the studio’s All You Need Is Kill, which opens in June 2014.
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