Kansas: Tom Cruise has made up his mind! He’s currently firming up plans to make Wichita, an action comedy co-starring Cameron Diaz and to be directed by James Mangold, his next movie. The film, about a secret agent who comes in and out of a single woman’s life, beat out a bunch of other movies Cruise was considering, including one called Motorcade. To make up for it, we sure hope they figure out how to work a motorcade into Wichita. [Variety]
Mini-Jack: Freddie Prinze Jr. will have a recurring role on 24’s upcoming eighth season, as Davis Cole, an ex-marine who runs CTU field ops and wants to follow in Jack Bauer’s footsteps. Okay, so it’s not exactly as promising as Anil Kapoor coming on onboard, but look on the positive side: Most likely, either Prinze Jr./Bauer Jr. will get spun off onto some show you don’t have to watch, or Jack will shoot him in the leg for some surely excellent reason by the tenth episode. [HR]
Bad Lithgow: John Lithgow has booked a TV deal as well: he’ll be a regular on Dexter’s upcoming fourth season, as a suburban guy who lives a double life as the Trinity Killer, a serial killer known for committing murders in threes. Little-known fact: This was actually the original character sketch for Lithgow’s role on 3rd Rock From the Sun. [Variety]
A Couple More Dicks: A Couple of Dicks, the Kevin Smith–directed, Tracy Morgan–Bruce Willis co-starring buddy-cop comedy, has added a few names to its cast. Sean William Scott will play a thief called the Shit Bandit (for the record, not because he steals poop but because he poops at his crime scenes), and Adam Brody will play a jerk detective who doesn’t like Morgan and Willis. Hey, welcome back, Adam Brody! [HR]
No 5-D?: Tom Hanks has executive produced a World War II documentary, Beyond All Boundaries, which will screen as part of the National World War II Museum’s new renovation. One thing: Straight-faced museum reps are insisting on calling the film 4-D. According to Boundaries’ creative director Phil Hettema, the goal was to find a way to engage a younger generation with the history of World War II. Yep, entering the fourth dimension should just about do it. [HR]
Learnin’ Stuff: Walk Hard’s Jake Kasdan (wait, keep reading!) will direct the comedy Bad Teacher, based on a script from The Office–Ghostbusters 3 team Gene Stupnitsky and Lee Eisenberg. The title character is a potty-mouthed seventh-grade teacher who, after being dumped by her sugar daddy, makes waves at school when she goes after another teacher. By the way, IMDb has Ghostbusters 3 slotted for 2012. [HR]