Tom Cruise is rumored to be cast in Quentin Tarantino’s final film, The Movie Critic.

Circulating reports suggest that Tom Cruise is currently shifting his schedule in order to make an appearance in The Movie Critic. The rumors stem from a report from Jeff Sneider’s The InSneider, where it’s claimed that Cruise is eyeing a cameo or a small appearance in the film alongside Brad Pitt. Cruise’s schedule is currently being affected by the reshoots for Mission Impossible 8 as the release date of the film was delayed to 2025 amid 2023’s Hollywood writers and actors strikes.

RelatedQuentin Tarantino is a celebrated director known to reference other films in his work, from Inglorious Basterds to Reservoir Dogs to even Kill Bill.

The Movie Critic‘s logline describes the film as “the story of an irreverent critic in 1970s California who reviews mainstream movies for a porno magazine called The Popstar Pages.” It was recently reported that another casting for the movie so far is Brad Pitt, who would be reuniting with Tarantino after lead roles in Inglorious Basterds and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Pitt won his first Academy Award for his 2019 role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood as stuntman Cliff Booth.

Tom Cruise Was Eyed for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Tarantino previously described eyeing Tom Cruise for the Cliff Booth role, which eventually went to Pitt, stating, “We talked about it. He’s a great guy, and we really hit it off. [A collaboration] could happen on something else.” Tarantino continued discussing the Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio combo in the film, adding, “So the reality is I had maybe eight different pairings of actors that could go together in a realistic way in this kind of situation. Now the ones that I got were definitely my number 1 [choices], but I could never just be confident about that, I had to have a few different backups and a few different exploratory ways to go.”

RelatedQuentin Tarantino’s last film will reunite the director with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood actor Brad Pitt.

Tarantino has stated that The Movie Critic is based on a real-life figure, denying rumors that the film is about legendary movie critic Pauline Kael, who wrote for The New Yorker. Others have speculated the character is inspired by screenwriter Paul Schrader, who wrote the film Taxi Driver.

Tarantino stated, “It is based on a guy who really lived, but was never really famous, and he used to write movie reviews for a porno rag. He wrote about mainstream movies and he was the second-string critic. I think he was a very good critic. He was as cynical as hell. His reviews were a cross between early Howard Stern and what Travis Bickle [from Taxi Driver] might be if he were a film critic … Think about Travis’s diary entries. But the porno rag critic was very, very funny. He was very rude, you know. He cursed. He used racial slurs. But his sh-t was really funny. He was as rude as hell.”

Pitt and Cruise’s possible reunion would be their first in 30 years, as the two actors last worked together in the 1994 horror film, Interview with the Vampire.

The Movie Critic is currently in production.