Since May, Tom Cruise has been attached to 20th Century Fox’s Wichita, a surprisingly decent-sounding (for Fox) action comedy from 3:10 to Yuma director James Mangold, co-starring Cameron Diaz.  The project had been known previously as “Wichita” and “Trouble Man”, but Fox apparently decided it needed a new title that more fit the studio who brought us Big Momma’s House, Alvin & the Chipmunks: The Squeakwel, etc.  So now it’s called… KNIGHT & DAY.

Horrible puns in the title always make for horrible movies — see also: All About Steve, Made of Honor, the Russell Brand-Easter bunny movie entitled I Hop.  Was it really worth changing the name just to humor the executive who tells everyone how clever his niece is?  “Knight & Day” makes it sound like an 80s buddy flick, in which former radio comedy team Hank Knight and Everette Day have to put aside their differences and reunite for one more big score.  In short, it sounds like the 1989 Babaloo Mandel pilot, “Knight & Daye,” starring Marty in the Morning’s Joe Cipriano.  And no, I didn’t make any of that up.  Well done, Fox.  Looks like you really “Mangold” this one!  Hey, are you hiring?

Tom Cruise’s last three movies were the disappointing Valkyrie and Mission Impossible, and the über flop Lions for Lambs, but of course that didn’t keep Hollywood’s panties from going moist with anticipation about what his next film would be.  Answer: Wichita, from director James Mangold (3:10 to Yuma), co-starring Cameron Diaz.

According to sources, Cruise and Diaz have approved the script, and their deals are in advanced negotiations. While Fox has not officially dated the picture [they just boned one time after a keg party -ed.], sources said the studio is eyeing a summer 2010 release. The script has been through many machinations, but the most recent drafts were done by Scott Frank, with Mangold currently fine-tuning the script with Laeta Kalogridis (“Shutter Island”). Two-hander has several action scenes. [Variety]

Tom Cruise’s script approval is important, because he’s literally a dyslexic who believes alien spirits control our thoughts.  Oh, and don’t be embarrassed if you didn’t know what a “two-hander” is, I had to look it up too.  Apparently it means a script with two main characters.  I was thinking it was a guy with a huge weiner.  (*shrugs*)

Variety today has an article on the candidates for Tom Cruise’s next project (Len Wiseman’s Motorcade, The Tourist, or James Mangold’s Wichita), and more interestingly, a look at the Tom-Cruise-script-doctoring industry.  That is, the writers who get paid to tailor scripts to Cruise’s (*cough*) skills.

While screenwriters all over town have been taking haircuts on every deal [Editor's Note: I think that means they've been getting less], the script doctors in the Cruise derby [why are there doctors in a derby??] have been making as much as $250,000 a week, for two to six weeks, as they hone projects with notes from Cruise. Those writers include Scott Frank, who has been revising the action comedy “Wichita” for Cruise to play an action hero; Richard Curtis, who beefed up “Lost for Words”; and Paul Attanasio, who is now rewriting the rewrite that “Matarese Circle” director Cronenberg delivered. Meanwhile, Billy Ray continues to hone “Motorcade” with notes from Cruise. Christopher McQuarrie is doing the same on “The Tourist,” which the writer is also producing. (Ray and McQuarrie are not technically script doctors because they’ve been writing these projects for months.) [Variety]

Billy Ray reports that he’s been having trouble incorporating Cruise’s last few notes: “Your hair looks nice today.”  “I like your scarf, where’d you get it?” and “Do you like me? Check yes or no.”  Elsewhere, a rival studio is considering going forward with an undoctored script and casting another lead, a controversial strategy they call “acting.”