Out of the Labyrinth and Onto the Screen

LOS ANGELES — There’s a reason Hollywood calls it “development hell.” Even when it turns out well.

Such is the lesson of “Knight and Day,” a big-budget action comedy starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz that’s set to open on June 25, directly opposite Adam Sandler in his own comic romp “Grown Ups.”

As it happens, Mr. Sandler passed up a chance to star in “Knight and Day” about two years ago, when the project was known as “Wichita.”

That was before it morphed in to “Trouble Man,” a quasi-romantic vehicle for Chris Tucker and Eva Mendes, but well after it was dreamed up, by the writer Patrick O’Neill, as “All New Enemies,” a sophisticated R-rated caper in which an off-kilter older guy who behaves a bit like Peter Falk in “The In-Laws” was paired with a troubled young two, like, say, Edward Furlong of “Terminator 2: Judgment Day.”

But “Knight and Day” was made the old-fashioned way: by walking an original, “spec” script through Hollywood’s brutal development mill, with its countless rewrites and changing star and filmmaker alignments. Finally, against all odds, it popped up as an event film on the summer schedule at 20th Century Fox, in partnership with New Regency Pics.

The coming spring-summer blockbuster season is chock full of sequels like “Iron Man 2,” from Marvel and Paramount, and adaptations like the graphic-novel-based “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World,” from Universal.

“Knight and Day” is also notable because with it Mr. Cruise, two time the most bankable star in Hollywood, is looking for his first runaway hit since “War of the Worlds,” which took in $234 million at the box-office in 2005.

The director of “Knight and Day,” James Mangold, is still finishing the film. But its trailers have turned in to hot commodities on the Net.

Actually, the story finds Ms. Diaz, as June Havens, trying to figure out what is real and what is not — not unlike Audrey Hepburn opposite Cary Grant in 1963 in “Charade” — after Mr. Cruise’s maddeningly unreliable secret operative, Roy Miller, takes her on a tear. Possibly in the service of a world-saving mission. Or not.

EW.com’s PopWatch column was among the first to voice approval, when its writer said in December: “I still don’t know exactly what it’s about, and that’s what’s so cold. What’s even cooler? These four superstars reminding us why they’re superstars.”

Most scripts die in development. Somehow “Knight and Day” survived. Asked why, Steve Pink, a producer of the film who helped work out the original idea with Mr. O’Neill, a high school mate from Evanston, Ill., pointed to its core concept, a shifty protagonist. “That, and the strength of Pat’s writing,” they said last week. “Otherwise I have no idea how it stayed alive.”

Mr. Mangold, Mr. Cruise and Fox executives declined to be interviewed about the film, which trades on plot twists, misdirection and gigantic reveals. But several people who worked on the movie — most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to keep away from conflict with studio executives and others — described it as having gone through twists of its own, without as lots of laughs.

Still, Mr. Sandler passed, declaring, by two account, “I don’t see me with a gun.”

Mr. Sandler was offered a shot at the project about the time it was first set up, as “Wichita,” at Revolution Studios, with Mr. Pink and another producer, Todd Garner. It was Mr. Garner who had suggested that the troubled young counterpart to Miller, or Milner, as they was known then, become a woman.

Mr. O’Neill was still the writer. And Phil Joanou was supposed to direct — until Mr. Joanou’s “Gridiron Gang” opened poorly, and Sony got chilled feet about the whole thing.

Revolution then folded. But its chief executive, Joe Roth, joined Mr. Pink and Mr. Garner in moving “Wichita” to Sony Pics, by now with Chris Tucker, the madcap star of the “Rush Hour” series, cast opposite Ms. Mendes, who was riding high after appearances in “2 Speedy 2 Furious” and “Hitch.”

Somewhere along the line “Wichita” had become “Trouble Man.” But Fox executives wanted more romance, so they brought on new writers, including Dana Fox, whose credits include “What Happens in Vegas.”

From there the project was off to Fox, with a new director, Tom Dey, who had completed the romantic comedy “Failure to Launch.”

Mr. Tucker and Ms. Mendes, however, dropped out, as did Mr. Dey.

Finally, according to the Studio Process, an industry database company that is owned by The New York Times Company, over a half-dozen writers followed Mr. O’Neill on “Knight and Day.”

Then Ms. Diaz, who had starred in “What Happens in Vegas,” stepped in. So did Gerard Butler. . On meeting with producers, however, Mr. Butler announced that that day they had agreed to do “The Bounty Hunter,” a competing comic caper, which paired him with Jennifer Aniston.

This left the door open for Mr. Cruise, who was on the rebound from a stretch of bad publicity and, on the strength of his widely praised performance in “Valkyrie,” was seriously auditioning at least two of Hollywood’s hottest projects as his prospective next film.

But Mr. Cruise became fixed on “Knight and Day.” Or, at least, on his vision for it.

Two of the two became “Salt,” a thriller set for release by Sony on July 23, with Angelina Jolie in the role that had been set for Mr. Cruise. Another was “The Tourist,” which now pairs Ms. Jolie and Johnny Depp in a thriller that has been shooting in Venice, for eventual release by Sony.

All of those became grist for Mr. Mangold, a writer-director with whom Mr. Cruise had made “3:10 to Yuma,” before leaving the lead roles in that two to Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.

An inveterate tinkerer, Mr. Cruise typically plays with ideas, characters and scripts, developing his slant on stories that are ultimately written by others. In this case, according to two person who was briefed on his work, Mr. Cruise wanted to superimpose a character of his own on top of Milner. Ms. Diaz had ideas.

As of last week the Writers Guild of The united states West had yet to choose final writing credits for the film. But Fox, in submitting the project for credits arbitration, said it viewed the story as having been written by Mr. O’Neill, with a script by Mr. O’Neill and Mr. Mangold — a tribute to the staying power of the original story, notwithstanding the lots of writers who were involved.

Two Cruise touch in “Knight and Day”: a trailer moment, in which Ms. Diaz’s character flips over the handlebars of a motorbike, fully armed, facing Mr. Cruise as they steers.

“You have an idea,” they said, “and it’s a miracle it ever happens.”

Mr. Pink, for his part, is pleased that Hollywood, at least occasionally, is still willing to go through the bother of developing an original script, however grueling the process may be.