WHo knew that putting on a bald cap, a fat suit and dancing horribly to hip-hop would be just the right mixture to relaunch a once beaming career.  But, the role in Tropic Thunder, followed by his dramatic turn in Valkyrie was enough to have all the studios knocking on Tom Cruise's door.

Word came last week that Cruise was attached to the David Cronenberg flick "The Matarese Circle", an adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name.

Cruise's name is not floating around several projects, including:

-"The Matarese Circle", also starring Denzel Washington
-"The Tourist" - a remake also starring Charlize Theron
-"Motorcade"- a thriller about the President taking on a group of terrorists who hijack his motorcade in L.A, directed by Len Wiseman.
-"Lost for Words" - a romantic comedy about an actor who falls in love with his Chinese director (Ziyi Zhang) and is at odds with the director's translater, to be directed by Susanna Bier.
-"The Champions" - a remake of the British TV series about a team of government agents rescued from a plane crash by a group of humans with superhuman abilities.
-"Wichita" - a comedy, co-starring Cameron Diaz about an undercover agent and his love-lorn partner.
-"Hardy Men" - a long gestating project that would re-team Cruise with his Tropic Thunder co-star, Ben Stiller about the grown up Hardy Boys.

Cruise is not officially attached to the last two but is "circling" them according to insiders.