- Title: USA: TOM CRUISE SPEAKS ON NEW FILM "MINORITY REPORT"
- Date: 3rd June 2002
- Summary: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (JUNE 3, 2002) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) TOM CRUISE SAYING: "All of that, it's exciting and it's something that, in some ways, a warning to society, but also to be able to embrace the potential of what we're capable of doing."
- Embargoed: 18th June 2002 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES AND VARIOUS FILM LOCATIONS
- Country: USA
- Topics: General
- Reuters ID: LVA8OBD373B4ZKW0TEAAIN8T8ILI
- Story Text: Tom Cruise sat down with Reuters today (June 3) to talk about his upcoming movie, the futuristic sci-fi thriller "Minority Report" and about working with the film's director Steven Spielberg.
"Minority Report," the work of blockbuster team of Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg will hit North American theatres June 21. The futuristic sci-fi thriller is expected to be one of the summer's biggest box office hits and Tom Cruise says it's worth every dollar it makes.
The film takes place in Washington, D.C. in the year 2054 and murder has been eliminated. The future is seen and the guilty punished before the crime has ever been committed.
From a nexus deep within the Justice Department's elite Pre-Crime unit, all the evidence to convict -- from imagery alluding to the time, place and other details -- is seen by "Pre-Cogs," three psychic beings whose visions of murder have never been wrong.
It is the nation's most advanced crime force -- a perfect system. And no one works harder for Pre-Crime than its top man, Chief John Anderton (Cruise). Destroyed by the tragic loss of his son, Anderton has thrown all of his passion into a system that could potentially spare thousands of people from the tragedy he lived through.
Anderton has no reason to doubt the system ... until he becomes its #1 suspect.
As the head of the unit, Anderton is the first to see images as they flow from the liquid suspension chamber where the Pre-Cogs dream of murder. The scene is unfamiliar, the faces unknown to him, but this time, the killer's identity is clear -- John Anderton will murder a total stranger in less than 36 hours.
Now, with his own unit tracking his every move, led by his rival, Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell), Anderton must go below the radar of the state-of-the-art automated city, where every stop you take is monitored, every car you drive controlled by someone else, and your own eyes tell the world who you are, what you want and where you're going. Because you can't hide, everybody runs.
Cruise told Reuters the futuristic theme is something that intrigued him.
"It was something that I was interested in - what is the future going to be like? What's going to happen? And the character - the journey of this character - and the potential for that, I think that what Scott Frank did and Steven [Spielberg], where you have a film of this scope, but yet it is a very personal journey and it has all of the fun of the action and Scott brought a tremendous amount of humour and Steven did also, he's got a great sense of humour," said Cruise.
With no way to defend himself against the charge of Pre-Crime, Anderton must trace the roots of what brought him here, and uncover the truth behind the question he has spent the past six years working to eliminated: Is it possible for the Pre-Cogs to be wrong? "It's something that, in some ways, a warning to society, but also to be able to embrace the potential of what we're capable of doing," Cruise said of the film and its portrayal of the future of crime-fighting.
Taking the audience on this journey is famed director Steven Spielberg who lent his own special touch to the feel, look, and tone of the film.
"He's amazing, Steven. I mean, this guy is he's amazing. I mean, what else can I say that hasn't been said about Steven, but having known him as a friend and then having that opportunity to work with him as a director and have him direct me. Every day was a lot of fun. It was exciting and surprising. He's just a master storyteller," Cruise said.
Spielberg was unable to make it to the Los Angeles press junket to promote the film, leaving Cruise and the film's sole representative. The director has been busy recently, having just graduated from California State University with a bachelor's degree in Film Arts. Spielberg had been without a college degree for the life of his decades-long career and decided last year to complete his course work at Cal State.
Through a series of directed study and independent projects, Spielberg finished his requirements and joined the rest this year's graduates at they received their diplomas last week.
Cruise said of Spielberg's work on the film:
"You just look at this film, how he has with all the things he has in the frame, you never lose sight of his narrative and he takes those and there's pleasure in those moments of scrubbing the image but it's not about that. He keeps his eye on the ball, yet he gives you what you want, as an audience. And I think that it's just instinctual to him, it's visceral when he's making a picture even how he changes around and ad-libs and plays. It was a gas, an absolute gas."
"Minority Report" will go head to head with current box office hits like "Star Wars," "Spider-Man," and "The Sum of All Fears" later this month. In the meantime, expected biggies like "Scooby-Doo," with Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze, Jr.; "The Bourne Identity" starring Matt Damon; kids' flick "Lilo & Stitch;" and the Nicolas Cage war drama "Windtalkers" will all hit theatres, heating up this summer's movie competition.
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