We've previously reported that director John Woo was working on a film called Flying Tigers, which is about Chinese fighter pilots in World War II.  It's based on the true story of U.S. Army Air Corp Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault, who trained the first generation of Chinese fighter pilots to take on Japan in WWII.  Now it looks like Tom Cruise wants to make that same movie, but as a rival picture.  Deadline reports that while it looks like Woo's film will go before cameras first, Cruise is still moving ahead with screenwriter Kirk Ellis (John Adams) rewriting a draft by Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie) and Mason Alley.  Last October, Cruise was attached to Woo's Flying Tigers, but it looks like they've split ways for one reason or another.

In a related story, Deadline also reports that Cruise is sadly not attached to the action-comedy El Presidente.  That film would have seen him re-team with Jack Nicholson and playing an overly-zealous secret service agent tasked with protecting a pain-in-the-ass ex-president.