The tortured trail of 'The Tourist'

November 5, 2:44 PMCapital District Movies ExaminerJim Dixon

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Johnny Depp    Photo:  http://www.celebs-tv.com/wp-content/uploads/

This is one of those stories that takes a little following. “The Tourist” is still in development, but the tortured path it’s taking makes one wonder why so many big names are circling it, sort of like crows over road kill.

According to Collider, Tom Cruise came on board to play an American tourist drawn into a web of intrigue when a female Interpol agent gets him involved in her hunt for a criminal who was once her lover. Charlize Theron was cast in the female lead, and Bharat Nalluri (“Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day”) was going to direct.

Then apparently Cruise dropped out to star in “Knight and Day” opposite Cameron Diaz. Sam Worthington was signed to replace Cruise. Then Charlize Theron split. Worthington was being mentioned recently to star in “Mad Max 4: Fury Road” opposite Theron, but then word came that Tom Hardy had actually nabbed the role, with Theron still being mentioned for the female lead in that movie.  No word on speculation that Charlize Theron just doesn't like Sam Worthington.  

Angelina Jolie then came aboard to replace Theron. Jolie apparently had no qualms about following her upcoming spy movie “Salt” with another espionage-type vehicle, and no, no one seems to know what this does to “Wanted 2,” which everyone still seems to think is a go.
 

Angelina Jolie in "Salt" (c) Sony 

A week after that, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (“The Lives of Others”) came aboard to direct in place of Nalluri and all seemed finally on track.

Or maybe not. Worthington and von Donnersmarck both quit after “creative differences.” You’d have thought one of them could have stayed on board after the other left but that’s not apparently what happened. Bear in mind, this project is supposedly scheduled for a February 2010 start date.

Now producers are reportedly talking to Johnny Depp who has so many irons in the fire that by rights he shouldn’t have time to take a cell phone call in the men’s room. Depp, who has “Alice in Wonderland” coming out, “Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” going into production and is reportedly also committed to “Dark Shadows” and “The Lone Ranger”, not mention “Rango” and “The Rum Diaries” floating around in the ether, appears to booked for the next few years. Or is he? Although only the other day mega-producer Jerry Bruckheimer blithely said “Pirates 4” was on track to shoot next year, he didn’t actually specify a month. And you can’t just knock one of these movies out in a standard twelve week shoot. Depp may be getting tired of waiting around for something to do.
 

Alfonso Cuaron directing cast of "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban"  moviesmedia.ign.com

Now supposedly lots of directors are circling the project, including Alfonso Cuaron. Cuaron hasn’t done a film since his 2005 sci-fi drama, “Children of Men,” a movie much admired in many circles, as is his previous outing, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," widely regarded as the best film in the series by many fans. The thing is, it’s already November and if this movie is really going to start shooting in February, the director who actually makes the movie doesn’t have a lot of time to get his, her or anyone else’s act together.