Chantal has sent me some news:

DeVito, Cruise in secret project
From correspondents in New Plymouth, New Zealand
April 10, 2003

HOLLYWOOD star Danny DeVito has confirmed he is working on a secret project with colleague Tom Cruise.

Cruise is in New Zealand’s Taranaki province filming the $US100 million ($165.54 million) Last Samurai, but DeVito declined to reveal details of their joint project.

“I’m working on a project with Tom, but I can’t say what it is yet,” he said.

Rumours have been rife that another Hollywood movie is just around the corner for Taranaki.

There has been talk about Cruise planning to film an adaptation of H G Wells’ novel, The War of the Worlds, but DeVito would not confirm if that was the project he and Cruise were working on.

From:
http://entertainment.news.com.au/

A few more about Tom and DiCaprio going for the same part…

From: Teen Hollywood
Cruise And DiCaprio Play Same Part
April 10, 2003

Film idols Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio are to make films about the same serial killer.

Cruise’s production company C/W Productions have acquired the film rights to New York Times bestseller, TThe Devil in White City, a book by Eril Larson that details the actions of H.H. Holmes, a murderer who preyed on visitors to the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893.

Kathryn Bigelow will co-produce and direct the Cruise film, and the book will be adapted for the screen by Chris Kyle (K-19).

Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company Appian Way is also working on a Holmes movie.

Holmes was a doctor who lured young women away from the fair, took them to a nearby hotel and murdered them. In 1896 he was sentenced to death after admitting to 27 murders.

And this one from Canoe

Cruise, DiCaprio vie for The Devil
Two of Hollywood’s shiniest stars, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio, are racing to tell the big-screen story of one of 19th-century Chicago’s most notorious serial killers.

Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner have optioned author Erik Larson’s bestseller, The Devil In The White City, according to Variety.

The book tells the tale of H.H. Holmes, a devilishly debonair doctor who achieved infamy by luring young women away from the 1893 World’s Fair and murdering them in a hotel he owned near the fairgrounds.

Kathryn Bigelow (K19: The Widowmaker) is slated to direct. Holmes is also the subject of a competing film being developed by DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company for the Gangs Of New York actor to produce and star in.

In November, Appian hired a team to write a screenplay about the same killer via research available in the public domain.

This version will play more like DiCaprio’s blockbuster cat-and-mouse hunt Catch Me If You Can, by also following the viewpoint of the Pinkerton detective hired to hunt down Holmes.

Both films will have the same ending: Holmes was eventually captured, tried and hanged in 1896 after claiming to have murdered 27 people.

– Toronto Sun

From E! Online
Cruise, DiCaprio Go for the Kill

by Josh Grossberg
Apr 9, 2003, 2:15 PM PT

They say everything in Hollywood comes in twos, be it disaster films about volcanoes or asteroids, sci-fi flicks about Mars or even biopics on Howard Hughes.

So, it should come as no surprise that two of Tinseltown’s shiniest stars, Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio, are racing to tell the big-screen the story of one of 19th-century Chicago’s most notorious serial killers. (And no, this Chi-town slayer doesn’t sing and dance.)

Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner have optioned author Erik Larso

n’s bestseller, The Devil in the White City, according to Daily Variety. The book tells the tale of H.H. Holmes, a devilishly debonair doctor who achieved infamy by luring young women away from the 1893 World’s Fair and murdering them in a hotel he owned near the fairgrounds.

Director Kathryn Bigelow (K19: The Widowmaker) is slated to helm the project, while K19 scribe Christopher Kyle has been tapped to write the script. Cruise and Wagner will produce under their Cruise/Wagner production shingle.

Holmes is also the subject of a competing film being developed by DiCaprio’s Appian Way production company for the Gangs of New York actor to produce and star in.

In November, Appian hired the writing team of Aaron and Matthew Benay to pen a screenplay about the same dastardly killer via research available in the public domain. Unlike the Cruise project, this version will play more like DiCaprio’s blockbuster cat-and-mouse hunt Catch Me If You Can by also following the viewpoint of the Pinkerton detective hired to hunt down Holmes.

Either way, both films will have the same ending: Holmes was eventually captured, tried and hanged in 1896 after claiming to have murdered 27 people. The Ted Bundy of his time, he was so infamous that William Randolph Heart’s newspaper syndicate paid the doctor $10,000 to publish his prison confession.

The million-dollar question is which project will make it to theaters first. No word whether Cruise will star in his version, but with DiCaprio committed to headline his own take on Holmes, it’s likely he could be the winner.

That is, if he doesn’t fall behind in a couple of other high-profile Hollywood races.

DiCaprio is next scheduled to reunite with his Gangs pal Martin Scorsese to play Howard Hughes in The Aviator–that’s if Memento director Christopher Nolan and Jim Carrey don’t beat him to it with their own biopic on the bizzaro billionaire.

DiCaprio’s also looking to be king of the ancient world as he’s set to star in Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming epic Alexander the Great. That project has a rival in filmmaker Oliver Stone, who’s busy plotting his own epic on the legendary Macedonian king with red-hot Irish actor Colin Farrell in the lead.

DiCaprio’s calendar also includes a project with Robert De Niro called The Good Shepherd, which charts the history of the CIA as seen through the eyes of James Wilson, an idealistic young man recruited out of Yale to become one of the agency’s founding officers. Then there’s Bombshell, Lasse Halström’s movie in which DiCaprio would play the nuclear scientist who dished U.S. Secrets to the Soviets during the 1940s.

Cruise, meanwhile, is finishing up shooting on The Last Samurai, a 19th-century epic set in Imperialist Japan. He has also reenlisted with his Minority Report director Steven Spielberg for Ghost Soldiers, a World War II drama about the survivors of Asia’s Bataan Death March that Cruise will produce and headline.

And Cruise is looking to team up with director David Fincher to reprise his role as superspy Ethan Hunt for one last go-round in Paramount’s hugely successful Mission: Impossible franchise.

Thanks to the amazing Chantal for all those news!

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This sounds more of a gossip than actual news from NYPost, but….

THE Cannes Film Festival next month may be the first public confrontation for Tom Cruise, Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman. Cruz will be there because her latest pic, a remake of the swashbuckler “Fanfan La Tulipe” with Vincent Perez, is opening the fest, and she never goes anywhere public without Cruise glued to her side. Kidman is going for the new Lars von Trier film, “Dogville.” No one knows the schedule yet – there could conceivably be a week between their visits, as the festival runs two weeks. But it will still be a Penelope-Nicole popularity and beauty contest on the Croisette.

And this from People News
Tom, Pene and Nicole to meet
Cruzing for a bruising?
Gardez vos chapeaux – the south of France will be the setting for the first public meeting of Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman and Penelope Cruz. Next month’s Cannes Film Festival may well become the next high-profile war zone as the holy Hollywood trinity converge upon the famous French town. Cruz, who rarely leaves the house without her favourite accessory (Tom) is there to promote her film Fanfan La Tulipe, a remake of the 1952 swashbuckling classic. Kidman will be there to scope out Dogville, the new Lars von Trier flick. A meeting is not guaranteed as the festival spans a fortnight, but as Fanfan opens festivities and Nicole rarely turns down such opportunities, a red carpet clash could be on the cards. About time too, as the trio seem to have circling each other warily for months. Cruise has kept in touch with Kidman since being the first to congratulate her on her Best Actress Oscar. They are both due to appear in films about witches, which went into production while they were still a couple. Kidman has just bought a $5 million New York flat overlooking one owned by Penelope. More worrying for Tom is the fact that Cruz is soon to appear in a Jekyll and Hyde remake with Jude Law, romantically linked with his ex in the past. Is there some weird synchronicity thing going on here?

About Tom congratulating Nicole…. (From: People News

The first person to call and congratulate Nicole Kidman on her Oscar success was her ex-husband Tom Cruise. Pals say that Cruise, who has so far remained Oscarless (despite being nominated three times) called Nic from New Zealand, where he is filming The Last Samurai, shortly after she turned on her mobile phone to congratulate her. Nicole responded by promptly bursting into tears. A friend of the alabaster actress said, ‘The emotion of the evening was all a bit much for her. She was genuinely shocked that Tom called her so soon. It meant a lot.’ Cruise has been a staunch supporter of his ex wife’s career – last year he used his Academy membership vote to back Nicole to win an Oscar for Moulin Rouge.

And this I’m not sure where is from….

Cruise gets airborne
From correspondents in Auckland
18mar03

FILM hunk Tom Cruise yesterday spent two hours stunt-jumping with his children.

Cruise is currently living in Taranaki while filming The Last Samurai.

Thanks for the wonderful Chantal!!!

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