Those of us who watched this year’s MTV Movie Awards were treated to a surprise appearence by none other than Les Grossman, the raunchy foul-mouthed producer from 2008’s Tropic Thunder. Played to perfection by Tom Cruise, Grossman started the awards show off with one of his infamous rants and later interuppted a comedy sketch when he came on stage with Jennifer Lopez for a dance number. Anyway, it appears as if the stint was done to reintroduce the audience to the character of Les Grossman and build hype for an entire movie based on him. Cruise will star and produce in the upcoming Grossman flick. He’s partnered with Tropic Thunder co-star and director Ben Stiller and producer Stuart Cornfeld of Red Hours Films to make this movie happen. Michael Bacall (Scott Pilgrim vs. the World) has been selected to write the screenplay. Take a look at these choice quotes from the unorthodox press release that comes from Paramount:
Tom Cruise, along with Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld of Red Hour Films will produce and have secured the life rights to Grossman.
Grossman, best known as a mega producer, has most recently mentored talents such as Rob Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.
Said Ben Stiller: “Les Grossman’s life story is an inspiring tale of the classic human struggle to achieve greatness against all odds. He has assured me he plans to quote, ‘F**king kill the sh*t out of this movie and make Citizen f**king Kane look like a piece of crap home movie by the time we are done.’ I am honored to be working with him.”
When asked what the screenplay was about Grossman responded: “To quote my great friend Kirk Lazarus, ‘I don’t read the script, the script reads me.””
Adam Goodman, Paramount Film Group President said, “Everything I learned in this business, I’ve learned from Les. I started out as his assistant, and from the first day he threw his desk at me when I got his lunch order wrong, I have loved him like a father.
Yeah, this is really happening. Look after the break for the full PR.