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On Tom Cruise’s desire to remain an action star

Not quite sure why I’m choosing Tom Cruise’s career choices to be the first thing I blog about in weeks, but I am, dammit!

I understand the appeal of being a movie star. Having your name at the top of the poster and shouldering the expectations of an investment worth hundreds of millions seems like an awesome challenge. But isn’t it, I don’t know, just a little frustrating that Tom Cruise, who one can argue is still the most famous movie star worldwide doesn’t seem to want to do anything other than make tentpoles? Take a look at his upcoming schedule, sans the ensemble musical Rock of Ages:

• One Shot: Cruise plays a tough guy Military Policeman for the Army who has to investigate a conspiracy. Guess what Paramount exec Adam Goodman said: it has franchise potential! Who’d have guessed. While this was originally slated for a pretty worthless 2/8/13 release, Paramount moved it up to six weeks to capitalize on the Christmas market after moving Brad Pitt-led blockbuster World War Z to 6/21/13. Not coincidentally, One Shot’s new release date is the same as last year’s Ghost Protocol, which ended up being Cruise’s highest gross yet. Also, it’s my favorite action movie in a few years, for what it’s worth.
• Oblivion: Sci-fi epic set on an alien planet, where court martialed soldier Cruise is sent to exterminate another race. From Joseph Kosinski, who conned Disney into giving him $175 million to reboot the Tron series. Whoops! This will probably have a lot of CGI, and I don’t think I’ll like it. Out 4/26/13
• All You Need is Kill: Another sci-fi actioner, wherein Cruise plays a soldier fight an alien race in space. But guess what! His last day on the battle field continuously repeats, allowing him to perfect his soldieriness. This smells like a mid-summer Tentpole, and considering director Doug Liman’s track record (The Bourne Identity), that’s probably how it will shake out. 
• Top Gun 2: In the THR feature about Adam Goodman published yesterday, the exec reveals that Cruise is going to shoot Top Gun 2—the movie we didn’t ask for, but apparently deserve—after he wraps up production on All You Need is Kill. Figure they’re aiming for a summer 2015 release. If you thought the 19 years of downtime between Indiana Jones sequels was bad, how do you feel about 29 for this masterpiece in the making?
• Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol Harder: After TG2, Goodman says, Cruise will come back for a fifth installation in the series that won’t die. Seeing as how the earliest they can shoot this is probably 2014, that leaves a late 2015 or even 2016 release date. That is, of course, if he isn’t already involved in a sequel to any of the other aforementioned flicks.

Keep in mind his previous movie to Ghost Protocol was the forgettable action/comedy/romance (ick, awful combo) Knight and Day. Look, the guy will be 50 in July and he probably thinks it’s as awesome as I do that he can still scale buildings and run from bad guys as expertly as does. But doesn’t he have any desire to push his limits as an actor? Or is that his pet project for his 60s, when human nature will inevitably catch up to him? Or is he trying to be a shorter Sly Stallone?

Why do I care about this?