Tom Cruise is one of the most well-known performers working today, and Top Gun: Maverick, his latest film, is doing exceptionally well at the box office. The actor will play Ethan Hunt for the seventh and eighth time since 1996 in two additional Mission: Impossible films, which are now in production. He has also received three Academy Award nominations during his career for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire, and Magnolia. Not to mention fan favorites like Interview with the Vampire, Edge of Tomorrow, and timeless movies like Rain Main and Eyes Wide Shut. The list is endless, but there is one movie that is occasionally overlooked. Michael Mann, a renowned filmmaker, directed Collateral, which was first seen in theatres in 2004. Jamie Foxx, who received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor, also acted in the film. The movie is currently ruling Netflix, 18 years later.
After Love in the Villa, Me Time, I Came By, and This Is 40, Collateral is now ranked as the fifth most popular movie on Netflix. You may read Collateral’s Netflix synopsis here: “A guy offers to pay cab driver Max $600 to take him about after he is picked up. When Max learns his fare is an assassin, the lure of quick money evaporates.” Along with Jada Pinkett Smith, Mark Ruffalo, Klea Scott, Paul Adelstein, Peter Perg, Bruce McGill, Irma P. Hall, Barry Shabaka Henley, and others, the thriller was written by Stuart Beattie.
Mann has recently gained attention for the publication of Heat 2, a novel that acts as both a prologue and a sequel to his 1995 film masterpiece starring Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Mann claimed in a recent interview with Empire Magazine that the book was “absolutely designed to be a movie” from the moment he first thought of it as a novel.
Mann said, “It’s perpetuated in culture. “It is well known. I could fool myself into thinking that everyone knows about it, but considering how prominent it has been in home videos for over 20 years, this idea has some serious staying power. People are still viewing it and discussing it today. It has a name. It resembles the Heat universe in certain ways. And that unquestionably supports an ambitious film.”
Regarding Cruise, he’s still starring in Top Gun: Maverick, which has already earned more than $1 billion worldwide and has swiftly become Paramount’s most successful film ever. The movie’s digital distribution alone this week made it the best-performing week-one title ever.