Cruise Film Unveiled; Leo Gets Freaky
September 26 -- The last time Tom Cruise toiled on a difficult film shrouded in mystery, it turned out to be the late Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Now it's been revealed that the actor's next mystery movie — the heavily guarded Vanilla Sky — is actually a remake of the 1997 Spanish film Abre Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes).
Cruise will reunite with Jerry Maguire director Cameron Crowe, while Cameron Diaz and Open Your Eyes star Penélope Cruz round out the solid cast. The two Camerons, Cruz, and Cruise will flesh out the stunning revenge fantasy that permeated the original, Variety reports.
This is the fruition of a pet project for Cruise, who liked Spanish-Chilean director Alejandro Amenabar's picture so much that his C/W Productions purchased the English remake rights to it in 1998. The U.S. version has a tentative fall 2001 release.
The reality-bending screenplay involves a bevy of swampy feelings, unfortunate accidents, and betrayal. Perhaps Cruise and Crowe didn't want any of the steamy plot twists to make it into the industry trade mags; they simply told entertainment journalists that Vanilla Sky was "a love story." Last week, TV Guide Online asked Cruz about the film, and she immediately clammed up. "I can't talk about it," she said. "All I can tell you is that I play a Spanish woman from Spain."
Another twist: Cruise and wife Nicole Kidman are currently living in Spain while she shoots ghost story The Others for Open Your Eyes director Amenabar.
Leo Joins Freak ShowLeonardo DiCaprio may have horrified fans by playing long-haired French twins in The Man in the Iron Mask, but he aims to right that wrong with Johnny Eck, a new film in which he'll portray real-life twins who astounded the medical and film community.
Robert and Johnny Eckhardt were born in 1911. Robert was born anatomically correct, but Johnny was born a "half man," meaning that he did not have a body below his waistline. He led a normal childhood despite the deformity. The Eckhardt brothers wowed audiences in a traveling magic show (in which the magician would pretend to saw Johnny in half) and at circuses and "freak shows."
