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Tom Cruise in talks to reprise his Tropic Thunder character for spinoff with Mission Impossible 7 director
Tom Cruise is in talks to star as Les Grossman, his famous character from the 2008 film Tropic Thunder, in a potential spinoff.
In his long career, Tom Cruise has repeated very few characters on screen, given his aversion to sequels. Apart from Ethan Hunt in the Mission Impossible series, Pete Mitchell in the two Top Gun films and Jack Reacher, there hasn’t been a character that Tom has reprised. But that is to change now. As per reports, Tom is in talks with Mission Impossible 7 director Christopher McQuarrie to create a film for Les Grossman, the foul-mouthed studio executive he played in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder. Also read: Tom Cruise is irrelevant, been doing the same part for 35 years: Mickey Rourke
As per a new report in Deadline, Tom and Christopher--who is directing the actor in the upcoming Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1--are in talks for three different films. The report says one film is a musical, one a potential franchise-starting action film, and one will see the return of Les Grossman. Deadline say the two are “fixated on Les Grossman” but does not specify if the character will star in his own film or play a supporting role in any spinoff.
Les Grossman was a surprise cameo that Tom did in the Ben Stiller and Robert Downey Jr-starrer comedy Tropic Thunder. The character was an overweight, profane, and dance-loving studio executive producing the titular film within the film. The movie earned rave reviews and RDJ even won an Oscar nomination for his performance. But Tom’s cameo also won hearts with many fans campaigning for a spinoff featuring him. Looks like, it is finally happening.
Earlier this year, Tom had hinted that he would be in favour of playing the character again. Talking about a character of his he would love to play again, he had told ComicBook.com, “I did Les Grossman for the MTV Awards and we’ll have to see. That could be fun. But I really don’t know at this moment.”
Tom was last seen in Top Gun Maverick, which has become his most successful film ever. With worldwide earnings of $1.3 billion, it is also the highest-grossing film of the year. The actor will be next seen in the two part Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning, releasing in 2023 and 2024.
