Tom Cruise has dropped out of Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of the popular TV show The Man from U.N.C.L.E., so that he can reportedly focus more on Mission: Impossible 5.
The production for The Man from U.N.C.L.E. was said to have been aiming for a fall start date, but with Ritchie losing Tom Cruise as the film’s lead, this will certainly cause Warner Bros. so rethink greenlighting the film. As we all know, having Cruise as your leading man guarantees an audience will show up to the theater.
Collider recently reported the addition of The Lone Ranger’s Armie Hammer signing on to co-star, which probably made Warner Bros. pretty excited about this film’s potential. The film also had trouble with directors dropping out, as Steven Soderbergh was originally signed on to direct the film, but decided to leave it when Warner Bros. wouldn’t give him the budget he thought the film required.
Director Guy Ritchie will now be on the lookout for a new leading man to replace Cruise, which while not impossible, will certainly have him scrambling a bit to get his picture back on track. As for Tom Cruise, he’ll be focusing on his franchise favorite, Mission: Impossible. Iron Man 3’s writer, Drew Pearce, has agreed to take on another massive franchise, signing on to write the script for Mission: Impossible 5, a sequel to the highly popular Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol.
Tom Cruise may have decided to focus on MI5 because Ghost Protocol was the most successful film in the Mission: Impossible franchise, along with being Tom Cruise’s most financially successful film to date. Ghost Protocol pulled in $694 million worldwide, and we imagine its sequel, which is headed for a 2015 release date, will see even larger numbers.