Tom Cruiseisn’t just the greatest movie star in the world right now; he’s been one of the most important figures in American cinema for around four decades. Cruise’s career is unparalleled, as there are no other “movie stars” working today that have developed the same specific relationship with the audience that Cruise has curated. His commitment to the theatrical movie-going experience has made him an important advocate within an industry that has begun to increasingly rely on streaming services; in an era where many moviegoers struggled to return to the theater, Cruise’s work promotingTop Gun: Maverickis largely credited with saving the industry.
While Cruise is often thought of as a “commercial” actor because he often appears in mainstream action films, he’s actually worked with more auteur filmmakers than most other performers that came from his generation. Between Martin Scorsese (The Color of Money), Stanley Kubrick (Eyes Wide Shut), Steven Spielberg (Minority ReportandWar of the Worlds), Oliver Stone (Born on the Fourth of July), Cameron Crowe (Jerry MaguireandVanilla Sky), Brian De Palma (Mission: Impossible), Michael Mann (Collateral), and Barry Levinson (Rain Man) among countless others, there aren’t a whole lot of directors that Cruise hasn’t worked with.
Update August 04, 2025: This article has been updated with even more exciting directors Tom Cruise should work with in the future as a new year dawns.
12Noah Baumbach
Even though they are both from New York, Cruise andThe Squid and the WhaledirectorNoah Baumbachcould be any more different when it comes to the types of projects that they pursue. Baumbach has never made the type of high concept action movie that Cruise is often at the center of, but it may surprise some of Cruise’sMission: Impossiblefans to learn that, in the 1990s, he starred in many sensitive dramas likeJerry MaguireandFar and Away; perhaps Baumbach could let him return to that stage of his career.
Why They Should Work Together
Baumbach is a character’s director who could give the actor a new kind of role for him to play. Cruise could be one of the many egocentric, not as great as they thought dads. That has always been one of the director’s obsessions. The actor hasn’t played a dad in a decade, and has never played a dad of an adult. That would be a new challenge for the actor to play.
Related:Tom Cruise Was Desperate to Drive a Motorcycle off a Cliff in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning
11Bill Hader
Bill Haderis one of the greatest comedic actors of this generation, both inSaturday Night Lifeand in film, but withBarry, he’s shown he might be an even better director, as the show started as a fun satire and became a cruel thriller. The actor also wrote and directed the show, so it was all him, showing his surprising talent as a director.
Why Cruise Should Work with Hader
Hader worked with Cruise inTropic Thunder,where he played his assistant, so they already know each other. The actor/director has shown in his TV series that he can direct satire, but also dark comedy, and action, as the show got darker and darker. With all that in mind, it would be very interesting for Cruise to play a dark character who is much more grey in his morals than he usually plays, like in Collateral, but this time with Hader’s touch of humor.
10Kathryn Bigelow
Kathryn Bigelowis a unique filmmaker who has proven time and time again that she has one of the best eyes for action in the whole industry and should be directing much bigger projects than she gets. That’s where Cruise could come in, as a collaboration between them would help both. The director loves shooting action as much as Tom Cruise loves playing action, so this would be a marriage made in action heaven.
Why Cruise Should Work With Bigelow Next
Working with the actor would give Bigelow a bigger budget for her action set pieces, and the actor would get a chance to work with one of the best filmmakers in the industry. When Cruise started out, he always tried to work with the best filmmakers, and those directors challenged him. Bigelow and Cruise is a pairing that feels like it should have happened years ago and now could make for one of the most exciting films if it were to happen.
9Jordan Peele
Jordan Peelemight be one of the newer directors on the list, but his three movies are so great that he deserves to be here. The director has proven to be a master of the horror and thriller genres, creating films that, when you see them, you know are made by him. That in itself is already something great but pairing him with someone like Tom Cruise might give Peele his biggest audience yet.
Why Cruise Should Work with Peele
Cruise used to collaborate with younger, interesting directors much more in the nineties, and it’s a shame he doesn’t do it more as it brought in him great performances like the one in Paul Thomas Anderson’sMagnolia.Peele could give him a role like that one, one that’s a challenge for the actor and that shows he can play more than a great action hero or the perfect boy scout, and doing so in a scary sci-fi film would be even better.
8Rian Johnson
Rian Johnsonis one of a kind, as he has done films in many genres and almost deconstructed them to create something new and unique. Sometimes those changes scare the fans of the genre, like inThe Last Jedi, and other times it gives new life to a world that had been dead for a while like the Agatha Christie-kind of film likeKnives Out.After starring in five films as James Bond, Daniel Craig clearly needed a break from playing the same character. The director gave him a chance to do so inKnives Out, which showed a more comedic side to Craig than his Bond fans would have expected.
Why Cruise Should Work With Johnson
Perhaps Johnson could do similar wonders for Cruise’s post-Mission: Impossiblecareer if they got the chance to work together. The actor could be the villain in the newKnives Out, likeSPOILERChris Evans and Edward Norton in the last two movies. Cruise hasn’t been a bad guy that often, and when he plays those kinds of characters, he’s always great, be it as a vampire or a killer, giving himself new notes to play. The fact that this would also be a comedic performance would be the cherry on top of it all.
7Greta Gerwig
Cruise is often not given enough credit for how funny he is. While he has a fair amount of one-liners in theMission: Impossiblemovies and other action projects likeEdge of Tomorrow, his performances in comedy classics likeRisky BusinessandTropic Thunderare truly masterful. It would be a great opportunity for Cruise to show off his sense of humor once more if he got to work with one of the funniest directors working today,Greta Gerwig.
Why the Actor Should Work With Gerwig
The director is one of the smartest directors out there who’s always interested in real emotions and characters (yes, even inBarbie), and Cruise has not been a guy working in the real world that much on his films, that’s what madeTop Gun: Maverickso special, and that’s what would make a collaboration between the actor and the director something special; Cruise would play a real character with real problems and emotions, like he did inJerry MaguireorRain Man,two times he should’ve won an Oscar for his performances.
6Christopher Nolan
Christopher Nolanis perhaps the only other figure in the film industry who has supported the theatrical movie-going business as much as Cruise has, as he frequently encourages cinema-goers to seek out new movies in theaters. Cruise has admitted he’s a fan, as he’s encouraged cinephiles to go see Nolan’s filmsTenetandOppenheimer, so the fact that they haven’t worked together yet is frankly somewhat surprising. Both love big productions full of non-CGI action set pieces, so this is set to happen in the future once Cruise’s schedule is free ofMission Impossiblemovies.
Why the Actor and the Director Should Collaborate
Pairing cinematic titans like Cruise and Nolan would be a film fans' dream. Who knows, maybe the actor could use his knowledge of stunt work to create a new incredible set piece with the help of the man who had the 18-wheeler scene inThe Dark Knight, or the airport scene inTenet.These are two individuals who are at the top of their game and together could likely deliver a cinematic IMAX experience like nothing ever seen before.
Related:Tom Cruise Goes Top Gun To Offer King Charles III the Position of Being His Wingman
5Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Tarantinoneeds no presentation. The director and the actor are both lovers of cinema, its history, and what it means to go to watch a film in a theater, so the fact that their paths haven’t crossed yet is mind-boggling, as they both have the same adoration for the medium and love making movies the old way.
Why Should Cruise Work with Tarantino Next
It looks like his next film might be the last for Tarantino, so Cruise should get to be a part of it, as the director and actor think alike and love cinema more than most. The actor has proven over the years that he can recite great dialogue, be it Sorkin dialogue, Kubrick dialogue, or Crowe dialogue, so seeing him tell Tarantino’s words would be an incredible sight for audiences worldwide.
4Wes Anderson
Wes Andersonhas a very specific sensibility that doesn’t necessarily appeal to everyone, but it’s always impressive to see the types of performances that his films have inspired. The director crafts films that take place in their own unique world, and many actors show new shades of colors when they play in that sandbox, even giving their career a new line of work, like Bill Murray.
Why Cruise Should Work with Wes Anderson
Considering that Anderson has inspired amazing, quirky performances out of typically “serious” actors like Tom Hanks inAsteroid Cityand Ralph Fiennes inThe Grand Budapest Hotel,it would be interesting to see how Cruise would fit withinone of his ensembles. The actor could start playing a small role in one of his new films to see if it fits, like Tom Hanks did inAsteroid City,and if both enjoyed the experience he could play a bigger role in a future film, a tragicomic one like Ralph Fiennes inGrand Hotel Budapest,or Bruce Willis' inMoonrise Kingdom.
3Chloé Zhao
Chloé Zhaodirected two of the best films of the 21st Century,The RiderandNomadland. He followed those up withEternals,one of the most polarizing entries in the MCU but also one of the most unique. Even with a rigid studio like Marvel, Zhao was able to give the film her own unique voice. Zhao and Cruise would make an exciting collaboration, as it pairs a director known for very small scale projects and looking at the most human intimate moments of life with a star known for the biggest blockbusters and stunts.
Why Cruise and Zhao Should Make a Film Together
Zhao is a master of the small, the real, and the unique, always interested in the outsider and those who don’t live the typical life. That’s what makes her films so interesting, as her approach is almost like a documentarian. All those qualities could make for a film like no other for Cruise, who would be playing a different character than he usually does, as he’s always the best at his job (even if that job is serving cocktails), and here he might be closer to his role inFourth of July, where he played a man society didn’t want to see, and who made a name for himself. Whatever the story would be, it’s for sure, that it would be like anything Cruise has done in this century.
