Taylor Lautner Will Co-Star With Tom Cruise In Northern Lights
Seems premature to be givingTaylor Lautnermulti-million paydays based only onNew Moon, doesn’t it? The film did amazingly well, and he became an instant heartthrob, but how much of that was Lautner and how much was just Twilight? Impossible to tell until he’s in a non-Twilight film or two. Which is why he’s being courted left and right for new films, includingMax SteelandCancun.
Before those get a chance to get off the ground, however, he’ll earn $7.5m to star asTom Cruise’s son inNorthern Lights, a film that sounds likeTop Gun, Jr.
Nikki Finkehas the story; she says thatJohn Moore(who last directed the woefulMax Payne) will direct the film with Lautner and Cruise starring. An April 1 start date is reported.
The film is about “a gifted, young, aerobatics pilot who faces off with his controlling, billionaire father and falls in love with a gifted, female pilot.” So Cruise gets to play the domineering father (I’m envisioning a mix of his characters from Magnolia and Tropic Thunder) while Lautner mimes the effect of massive g-force in a replica cockpit? How will we see his abs? A transperant plastic flight suit, obviously.
Film is being put together by Skydance Productions, which has a first-look deal with Paramount. Interesting that Cruise, who seems to take a lot of time considering and reworking projects before choosing one, especially lately, is jumping right into this with Lautner. There was a point a few years ago when putting Cruise and jailbait like Lautner in a film together would have been a guaranteed moneymaker. Think that’s still the case? Skydance seems to think so. This will get going before Cruise’sKnight and Dayhas a chance to open, so they’ll have to go forward without any conclusive data on that film’s appeal.
