Limelite Limelight: No mission impossible By Lubna Abdel Aziz Nothing succeeds like success. One should hastily add, success does not happen overnight. The 15-minute fame, the flash in the pan, is just that. Success is sustained, steady, consistent, and consequently endures. It is a harmonious, homogeneous, methodical combination of talent, diligence, persistence, and hard work. Hard work may be the principle ingredient behind every success story. Such is the case of the two most successful names in Hollywood. When two burning balls of fire, such as Cruise and Spielberg meet, it is indeed a match made in Hollywood heaven -- the world's most commercially successful director teaming up with film's most bankable leading man. Spielberg and Cruise, responsible for filling the industry's coffers with $5 billion between them, have collaborated on a new film, Minority Report, which they hope will add to these coffers considerably. Both have known sustained success for years. Spielberg's films have brought in $2.8 billion in US revenues alone, and Cruise's 23 films made over $2 billion. While mediocrity can survive by itself and knows nothing higher, talent seeks excellence and recognises genius. It was inevitable that Cruise should seek Spielberg and Spielberg respond to Cruise. They had been contemplating this union for 20 years since they met on the set of Risky Business (1983). Cruise was only a starting youth, discovered by Franco Zeffirelli in a college production of Godspell. Zeffirelli cast him in his first film role Endless Love in 1981. Spielberg on the other hand was always Spielberg, with such major hits under his belt as Jaws, Close Encounters, Indiana Jones and ET Extraterrestrial. The magic union almost happened in 1988; the script of Rain Man landed on Spielberg's desk: "I had the chance to direct Hoffman and Cruise, he said. " But Spielberg's hopes were dashed when friend and producer George Lucas called to remind him of the starting date of Indiana Jones III -- The Last Crusade. He had to abandon Rain Man, which went on to win five Oscars. Spielberg, who usually picks the project, the star and everything else in sight, was himself picked by Cruise for Minority Report. The 1956 story, a dark, futuristic, science fiction thriller by Philip K Dick (Blade Runner, Total Recall) was quintessential Spielberg. The project was delayed for years. Spielberg was committed to A.I. Artificial Intelligence, which turned out to be more artificial than intelligent, and Cruise was flying high on Vanilla Sky, which quickly lost its flavour at the box office. With less than stellar projects behind them, it was time for the giants to meet. Spielberg went to work. He hired screenwriter Scott Frank (Out of Sight, Get Shorty), not a great fan of sci fi, who accented mystery, and added the theme of fatalism versus determination. Spielberg then recruited a 28-member think tank of futurists to foresee life in 2054. He handed them keys to luxury suites at a posh California beach hotel and for three days they contemplated 'the future'. With all ideas in place, Spielberg envisioned an old-fashioned whodunit murder mystery, a future film noir in the manner of John Huston's Maltese Falcon and Howard Hawks's The Big Sleep. Spielberg spoke volumes when he said: "I tried to do like Billy Friedkin in The French Connection. He shot in New York City, but it was parenthetical. He threw it away and celebrated the story." Being Spielberg, perhaps the best storyteller of our era, story beats style every time. He built his future world, his high-tech complex city of Washington DC, then forgot it. He wanted to unravel a murder mystery, not dwell on the high-tech hardware. Many sci-fi films are high on computer effects and short on emotional impact. Not with Spielberg. In Report, pre-cogs, humans with pre- cognitive powers have the ability to predict crimes before they happen. Pre- crime cops, led by Robert Anderton (Cruise), stop the crimes before they are committed by hunting the future criminals. Anderton himself becomes a target when he is blamed for the future murder of a man he has not met. Minority Report is indeed a film buff's heaven. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1946, little Steven began making films while still a child. After high school he enrolled in California's State College at Long Beach, but soon dropped out when he was offered the opportunity to make his first mark in television, directing Joan Crawford in Night Gallery. He also directed the first episode of Colombo. His TV full-length feature, Duel, 1971, was so successful that it is still considered the best film ever made for TV. It eventually received theatrical distribution and became a major box office in Europe and the US. In 1974, his first film, Sugarland Express, was followed by the first "summer block-buster" in history. The story of the man-hungry white shark called Jaws (1975) established the summer as the industry's lucrative season, not the sleeper it once was. His next project, the gentle story of human contact with alien life, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, cemented his reputation as a great power in Hollywood. His long list of staggering successes from comedy to drama, fantasy to horror, ET to Raiders, Schindler's List to Jurassic Park, were not reason enough to make him proud in front of his seven children. He had never graduated from college. The pain of this vacuum remained with him. He kept taking extension courses whenever he could, and after 33 years, Spielberg completed his required credits. In cape and gown, amidst mother and father, wife and children, family and friends, Spielberg finally received his Bachelor of Arts last month at age 56. Meanwhile, Cruise was happily cruising along. A dyslexic child with reading and writing problems, he was moved to 22 schools, and at 14 was enrolled in a Franciscan seminary. But destiny had other plans for Thomas Cruise Mapother IV. Since he 'rock and rolled' in his black sunglasses and white underwear in Risky Business (1983), he has gone from one success to another, from one blockbuster to another. Whatever he touches turns to gold -- almost. His successes are endless -- Top Gun, The Firm, A Few Good Men, Born on the 4th of July, Mission Impossible 1, 2 -- and 3 coming out in 2004 -- are international events. Actually he was born on the 3rd of July, 40 years ago. That flashing, dazzling, lethal smile is worth $20 million a film and part of the profit. His 'Mission Impossible' so far is a best actor 'Oscar'. He came close three times, with Oscar nominations for 4th of July (1989), Jerry Maguire (1996) and Magnolia (1999). For both these giants, the sky's the limit and their Minority Report has not disappointed critics or fans. Spielberg believes in "never-never land", in the "indomitable human spirit", in the endless curiosity and search for "other lives, other beings". He is a devoted father, and so is Cruise. 2001 was not a very good year for Cruise after his sudden divorce from Nicole Kidman, his wife of 11 years. He battled rumours of homosexuality and was much maligned for his liaison with co-star Penelope Cruz. He remains untroubled, untouchable. A dedicated Church of Scientology member, he donated both time and money to establishing the Hollywood Education Literacy Project (HELP), tutoring both children and adults. His excellence in his work is sustained and sustains him. A warning to female fans, Cruise shaved his head and barely smiles in Minority Report, but those eyes seem to tell you more about him than his teeth ever did. Spielberg needed no college diploma to stretch our minds to things hitherto unknown; to sharks and aliens, to dinosaurs and extra-terrestrials. Cruise, who could not read properly until 15 years ago, has an uncanny ability to choose the best scripts in Hollywood. Between these two, there should be no mission impossible.
