Tom Cruise's career has been filled with blockbuster hits, but the guy never really got his due as a discernibly talented actor, just look at his incendiary work in Paul Thomas Anderson's "Magnolia" or Michael Mann's "Collateral" for further proof of the talent and artistry the guy has. The last decade or so, he's been crucified by many for his connection with the Church of Scientology and that has consequentially made him a less bankable star at the Box-Office, although those "Mission: Impossible" movies are still killing it as muckrakers. He also does his own stunts, just watch 2011's "Ghost Protocol," and 2016's "Rogue Nation" for further proof of the lengths Cruise will go to make an action sequence look authentic.
Back to his acting. "Magnolia" was the kind of performance that made me wish he could continue to tackle risky roles such as Frank TJ Mackey from that film. After that 1999 film, Cruise went on a hot streak of dramatic roles with "Eyes Wide Shut," "Vanilla Sky," "Minority Report," "The Last Samurai," "Collateral," and, one of the great cameos in cinema, his take on Harvey Weinstein: Les Grossman. Come on, we know the “colorful” verbiage, profanity-laced threats and imposing figure that came from Les Grossman in “Tropic Thunder” were directly influenced by Harvey Weinstein's real-life persona and Cruise nailed it.
Grossman was a kind of adieu for Cruise in terms of pushing himself artistically for a movie role because ever since then he's been more or less coasting it with action films, albeit some pretty solid installments of "Mission: Impossible," "Jack Reacher" and his now classic "Edge of Tomorrow." Gone are the risky endeavors of his post-1999 mean streak, but his exceptional talents might be put to good use again as, according to Deadline, he is in serious negotiations to star in Quentin Tarantino's "Untitled Charles Manson/1969" movie.
This would be quite the departure for Cruise, whom, as previously mentioned, has been tackling safe projects of late, but consider me sold on him being in a Quentin Tarantino movie. He's already worked with some great directors in the past (Kubrick, De Palma, Scorsese, Spielberg, Mann, PTA, Stone), adding QT would just be the icing on the cake.