Tom Cruise Keeping Busy

Some updates on everyone’s favorite mega star-turned public punching bag-turned comeback kid Tom Cruise. The actor has been mulling over a handful of projects to get his career back to its glory days. Sure, everyone loved his high-profile Tropic Thunder cameo and turned his WWII-themed Valkyrie into a surprise hit during Christmas 2008. But he’s still a ways to go before the public completely forgets about "Couch-gate."

First up comes info from Deadline Hollywood that Cruise will star in Northern Lights with potential movie star of tomorrow Taylor Lautner. Yes, the "shirt-less wolf boy from Twilight" as most of you kids (and cougars) know him as. Cruise will play the billionaire father to Lautner’s young pilot who butts heads with his old man and ultimately goes ga-ga over a female pilot. Hopefully, the conflict between father and son doesn’t involve a love triangle with the double X chromosome.

Meanwhile, one of the more “out there” sounding project he’s long been attached to was The Hardy Men. The comedic send-up of the Hardy Boys books (My best friend in grade school used to read those religiously!) also had Ben Stiller attached. Its would-be director Shawn Levy recently told Starpulse it’s not dead. They’re still working on it. For some reason, I was only the impression there wasn’t much to this beyond an outline that fancied Cruise and Stiller. Meh.

Let’s see if the public continues to slowly enjoy Cruise’s mad-man laugh when the equally "Meh!" looking Knight & Day opens this coming July 4^th holiday against The Last Airbender. My money’s on the latter winning that battle.