If you've seen Vanilla Sky in 2001 with Tom Cruise, watching
this would be deja vu — pun intended. Vanilla Sky
is a remake of the Spanish film, Open Your Eyes, written
and directed by Alejandro Amenabar in 1997.
When Tom saw it, he loved it and bought the rights to remake it
immediately. But whereas the Tom's version was slammed by most critics,
the original film received nothing but rave reviews.
The gorgeous Eduardo Noriega plays a wealthy playboy whose jealous
ex-girlfriend (Penelope Cruz) tries to kill him by crashing the
car they're driving. From then on, nothing is what it seems in this
slick and mind-boggling thriller, which is far superior to its remake.
The boyish-looking movie director recently admitted to being gay
and generated a media sensation. Partly because of his well-timed
revelation, his new movie, Out To Sea, went straight to
No. 1 on Spain's box-office and stayed there for a couple of weeks.
Fridae congratulates Alejandro on his bold decision and looks forward
to watching Out To Sea, the rights to which has already
been secured by a Singaporean distributor.
TRIVIA: Tom and Alejandro got along so well together
that Tom went on to produce Alejandro's first Hollywood film, The
Others, starring Tom's then-wife, Nicole Kidman. Now that Alejandro
has come out of the closet, one wonders when Tom and Nicole might
too...