Written by Nicole Pedersen

 

James Mangold has signed to direct a new romantic comedy for 20^th Century Fox.  The film has been kicking around the studio for years - alternately known as “Wichita” or “Trouble Man” and at one time set to star Chris Tucker and Eva Mendes.  Currently the story of a single woman, who crosses paths with a “mysterious, handsome man” during a blind date, has no title.  But it does have a respected though creatively-barren director attached - so it’s news!

The other piece of this story, the piece that WOULD be news if it was not completely speculative, is the fact that Fox is hoping to entice Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz to come on board as the film’s lovers.  I’ve lost track of how many projects Tom Cruise is supposed to be mulling over at this point, so until someone confirms that he is interested I’m going to treat this as just another “Food Fight” rumor gone wild.

Adding some degree of credulity to this story is the fact that Scott Frank, who worked on the Cruise script for “Minority Report”, is currently in re-writes for the erstwhile “Trouble Man”.  Arguing in the negative, on the other hand, is the fact that the last time Cruise and Diaz got together (in 2001’s “Vanilla Sky”) it was kind of a disaster.