Most who saw “Avatar” this weekend were blindsided by a trailer for what’s probably the most low-key Tom Cruise film in a decade, the James Mangold-directed “Knight & Day.” In the punchy, blockbustery clip, Cruise is some sort of secret agent who bumps into duck-faced civilian Cameron Diaz while on some sort of mission (impossible!). Eventually, she realizes that this handsome if creepily youthful-looking (praise Xenu!) action hero is going to have to save her from some shady people (Peter Sarsgaard) in order to return to her normal, car-chase-free life.
The project, originally titled “Wichita,” is one of a host of Cruise projects he’s been eying during what’s ended up being a pretty long hiatus from the screen. Among those were the David Cronenberg-directed “The Matarese Circle,” the action thriller “Edwin A. Salt” (now “Salt” with Angelina Jolie) and the action-thriller “The Tourist” that may have Johnny Depp attached. We’re curious about “Knight & Day,” which, judging by its trailer, seems to play fast and loose with large action set pieces and broad dumb comedy. Mangold (“Copland”) has been attached to the film for awhile, with Patrick O’Neill’s original script being re-written by Frank and Dana Fox (“What Happens In Vegas”), and then punched up by Scott Frank (“Out of Sight”). Catch the trailer below.
Matthew Vaughn’s “Kick-Ass” played to a deafeningly positive reaction at the recent Butt-Numb-A-Thon (the temperamental Devin Faraci at CHUD gave it a rare “10 out of 10”) and the promotional rollout is just beginning for the rest of the nerds awaiting the film’s April release date. As expected, that’s begun with an Internet-exclusive red-band trailer focusing on one of the many colorful characters in the “Kick-Ass” story, the ten year old Hit Girl played by Chloe Moretz. The trailer showcases more of what the early promo art and (terrible) source material has promised: tone-deaf irony, improbably reckless violence and young kids firing off four-letter words. The presence of Nicolas Cage playing slightly-unhinged remains the only attractive element of the entire package, but the whole thing reeks of “Wanted” leftovers. We do want to be wrong about this.
For the record, this clip is locked behind an Age-Gate, which does nothing to grown adults with the mentality of a fifteen year old, but, hey, that’s Hollywood.