For the last few months director Phillip Noyce has been veering back into the high-tension thriller vein of Clear and Present Danger and Patriot Games. He’s now attached to both Edwin A. Salt, a Sony thriller that may star Tom Cruise as a CIA officer suspected of disloyalty and/or treachery, based on a Kurt Wimmer script, and The 28th Amendment, a Warner Bros. project about a youngish U.S. president who discovers that a secret organization controls U.S. government policy, and screw the three branches.

Phillip Noyce, partner Vuyo Dyasi and their three-month-old son son, Luvuyo William Noyce.

The 28th Amendment screenplay is by Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci (Transformers).
Cruise was going to play the president in 28th Amendment, but now he’s apparently more committed to Edwin A. Salt — although he’s not attached to either. Warner Bros. has offered the 28th Amendment lead to Christian Bale. Apparently Denzel Washington has had some kind of interest in playing a special forces operative in this film. I’ve read a recent draft of The 28th Amendment and agree (as have many others) that it’s a solid and gripping piece of work.
After the ’06 release of Catch a Fire Noyce was thinking about doing American Pastoral, a father-daughter relationship drama based on a Phillip Roth work. Then came Dirt Music, an infidelity drama set in Western Australia. Late last year and early this year he was planning to direct Mary Queen of Scots with Scarlett Johansson, but that went south after its producer, Capitol Films, ran aground with its finances. (Noyce informs that Dirt Music is still scheduled for September next year.)