Alex Moss EditorDespite some less than stellar box office business Edge Of Tomorrow was one of last year’s most fun and original big budget movies (making it to number 10 on FilmJuice’s Favourite Films Of 2014 list which you can see HERE). So it is good to see that star Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman are looking to team-up again for the true story of drug aviator Barry Seal.
Titled Mena, which refers to Mena, Arkansas where protagonist Seal spent much of his life, tells the story of how former TWA pilot Seal turned to trafficking drugs between North and South America having been fired for carrying plastic explosives on one of his flights. Seal became involved with everyone from the Medellin cartel, including run-ins with Pablo Escobar, before being caught and striking deals with the CIA and DEA to become an informant. He was then heavily involved in the Iran Contra affair before being assassinated by the Medellin cartel in 1986.
Cruise, who has always had a penchant for flying, would play Seal in role that would allow him to leave his more action-heavy roles of late and focus on something a little more meaty and controversial. At one point Ron Howard was circling the project but Liman has proven with films like Fair Game and The Bourne Identity that he can do smart thrillers with style so feels like a good fit for the project. The hope is to start production later this year. Before that Cruise will be seen in his Ethan Hunt guise for Mission Impossible 5 before, in theory, jetting off for the long gestating and still rumoured Top Gun 2. Source – Deadline
