War of the Worlds Premiere

The stars were hardly being beaten away with a stick for the premiere of War of the Worlds in Leicester Square on June 19th. The only celebrity of any import to roll up the carpet was Nell McAndrew, who was pounced on by mob of press eager to feed on celebrity flesh. But the fans care not one bit about the lack of celebrity sizzle as they await the arrival of the man of the night: Tom Cruise. Steven Spielberg was absent from the event; ‘The Beard’ was unable to attend because of filming commitments in Malta. He’s shooting possibly the most controversial film he’s yet attempted; his untitled Munich Olympics project. In his absence, Cruise shoulders the event, assisted by his 11 year old War of the Worlds co-star Dakota Fanning. Anticipating the Cruiser’s now famous flesh pressing and autograph-signing marathon, the crowds fill up the square. Eventually, Tom and co-star Dakota Fanning arrive, the Cruiser’s all smiles and with girlfriend du jour, Katie Holmes in tow he wanders out onto the Odeon’s balcony to wave at his fans. A bland TV presenter hurls one leaden question after another at him, finishing by asking Cruise if he can relate to his ‘dead beat dad’ character Ray Ferrier in War of the Worlds. My hopes that Tom will put up his hand and admit to freebasing coke while torturing his children with cigarette burns are dashed as he answers: “No, I love being a dad!” The crowd roars its approval. They love Tom. They love Tom loving being a dad.

Venturing out to commune with the masses, Cruise, Holmes and Fanning do the meet & greet with press. Fanning eventually has time to stop and talk. I ask her about the experience of working with Spielberg, a renowned director of child stars: “It was a blast; it was such a great experience!” - the frighteningly articulate eleven year old drops sound bites like an old pro; “Steven’s such a great guy and it was so much fun working with him and Tom”. I ask her about the mooted Alice in Wonderland project that Spielberg is rumoured to be working on as an intended vehicle for her and she grins: “it’s still being written but the script so far is great! But nothing’s confirmed yet so we’ll have to see what happens, so fingers crossed!”

Ms Fanning continues off along the red carpet smiling her mostly-gum-and-braces smile and scribbling autographs on flyers. I await the arrival of the Cruiser who, as fortune would have it, has just had water sprayed in his face by a Channel Four TV crew. None to happy with the prank, Cruise chews the guy out in front of several camera crews. If it were any other star they’d have thrown themselves into the nearest transport van and legged it, leaving their security to get medieval on the poor hapless fool’s ass but to his credit, Cruise remains cool and moves to another side of the square to sign autographs for fans. Like hunters waiting for an immaculately dressed prey, we wait. Eventually, Tom does sidle by, if only for a fleeting Q & A. I ask him why War of the Worlds: “It’s a timeless piece and it’s a great story” He continues: “You know when Steven and I first discussed working together again, he pitched me three ideas and the last one was War of the Worlds and just seeing Steven Spielberg say ‘War of the Worlds’ made me think ‘I’ve got to see this movie!’ you know? I have to see this on the big screen! When we were making it we always thought of it as a ‘smallest, biggest film’ - it’s epic but it’s really about the journey of this family, it’s a totally subjective point-of-view. It’s the third in his trilogy; you have Close Encounters and E.T, now we have E.T gone gangster in War of the Worlds (laughs) you know, he’s a badass and I cannot wait for an audience to see it”
His publicist sidles up next to him and ushers Cruise away and with that, the most perfect teeth in show-business make their exit. Having undergone something of a public grilling with his very open love affair with Katie Holmes, Cruise seems utterly unaffected. Considering all the fuss, the water pistols, the adoring fans and the $135 million blockbuster that he’s shouldering the responsibility of, Cruise looks like he couldn’t be happier and given that early word on War of the Worlds is that it’s Spielberg’s best film in years, Cruise should rest easy. However, it’s unlikely he’ll sit still for long; he’s collaborating with director J.J. Abrams (creator of TV’s Alias and Lost) on Mission Impossible 3 which will go before the cameras on July 12th in Rome.

JARROD WALKER