The Book of David: Ellison Is Making the Tough Calls, Fincher Is Up for Grabs, and Corenswet Is Due for a Coronation

Happy Wednesday, folks!

I let my four-year-old niece paint my nails at her sister’s 7th birthday party last night, so this newsletter is brought to you by some very pretty, very messy fingers.

Before I dive into tonight’s top story — written with an assist from my consigliere, Jamie Williams — let’s recap some Warner Bros. news.

For starters, Oscar winner Jennifer Lawrence is set to star in Zach Cregger’s next film, Flood. Not only is Lawrence’s casting a coup for the WB movie, but the movie is a coup for the actress, who hasn’t had one of those things called “an undeniable hit” in about a decade. This is going to be huge for her career.

Then again, I’m sure someone told Tom Cruise the same thing about Digger, yet the reviews have been absolutely brutal, for the most part, and the $175 million art film is expected to meet a cruel fate at the box office this weekend.

I’m going to keep an open mind as I enter the theater and, as the latest ad copy encourages, “decide for myself.”

After all, if I started trusting Film Twitter now, what would that make me?

Digger does seem like shameless Oscar bait for Cruise, but if he’s dead-set on winning a competitive Oscar, then Christopher Nolan is the director Cruise should be calling, not Alejandro G. Iñárritu, even if he did steer Leonardo DiCaprio and Michael Keaton to Oscar wins for The Revenant and Birdman.

There’s a movie that I know Nolan would like to make that Cruise might actually be perfect for — a Howard Hughes biopic that was a passion project for the director. I’m not suggesting that’ll be Nolan’s next movie, but if, for some reason, he did wish to revisit it, couldn’t you see Tom Cruise, legendary aviator, playing Howard Hughes? Am I crazy, or could that work — even with DiCaprio leaving some big shoes behind?

Guys like Nolan and Ryan Coogler are who Cruise should be looking to work with, not Shawn Levy, whom Cruise reportedly aggressively courted to direct the Days of Thunder sequel before Levy snubbed him in favor of Ryan Gosling’s Ghost Rider movie at Marvel (and a nine-figure overall deal at Disney). Cruise was forced to “settle” for Mr. Irrelevant director Jonathan Levine.

I’m all for Cruise starring in a sequel to The Color of Money, and playing the Paul Newman part this time alongside some hotshot young pool player. But if Cruise is going to continue returning to his legacy characters, à la Top Gun and Days of Thunder, the one he should really think about revisiting is actually Jerry Maguire.

Cameron Crowe is still developing his Joni Mitchell movie, but Cruise should really give him a call and see if his old pal has any ideas about bringing Jerry into the modern age. Yes, Sony would have to show Cruise the money, but that $273 million movie equates to a roughly $600 million movie today. And hey, Jonathan Lipnicki is hot again right now after Primetime!

Finally, Warner Bros. has dated its upcoming live-action movie Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest for June 6, 2029. We’re living in the future, man! Could WB’s Superman star David Corenswet be a good fit for Westeros?

Tonight’s column is about him and two other Davids you may have heard about this week — David Ellison and David Fincher.

That’s right, it’s The Book of David, and premium subscribers may now enter the Sneider-Verse to continue reading…

Subscribe to Premium to read the rest.