A new Tom Cruise movie opens in theaters this Friday (that would be The Mummy) and so it’s time to look ahead to the next Tom Cruise movie, the fall’s American Made. There must always be a Tom Cruise movie in impending release or Hollywood collapses.

The film sees Cruise partnering with his Edge of Tomorrow pal Doug Liman, for a biopic and drug thriller about a real-life commercial airline pilot who became a smuggler and later worked for the CIA and the DEA. Here’s the official synopsis:

In Universal Pictures’ American Made, Tom Cruise reunites with his Edge of Tomorrow director, Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity, Mr. and Mrs. Smith), in this international escapade based on the outrageous (and real) exploits of a hustler and pilot unexpectedly recruited by the CIA to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history.

Based on a true story, American Made co-stars Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, E. Roger Mitchell, Jesse Plemons, Lola Kirke, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez, Caleb Landry Jones and Jayma Mays.

I’m not going to spoil the real-life story for you here (if you don’t want it spoiled, don’t look at Wikipedia, either), but Cruise is a wee bit older than the real-life guy at the time of these events. (And about 20 years older than the woman playing his wife, Sarah Wright.) But this does look like a potentially strong showcase for Cruise as an actor, something he doesn’t get to do much these days with his endless parade of action films (most of which I like quite a bit, mind you). And, even better, it lets Cruise shake the rust off his flying chops ahead of Top Gun 2. This movie puts a whole new spin on the whole “need for speed” thing. American Made opens in theaters on September 29.

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