‘Eyes Wide Shut’ writer blasts Hollywood star Tom Cruise

 Hollywood star Tom Cruise has been branded an “egocentric control freak” by ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ writer Frederic Raphael. The veteran writer - who has been open about the issues he had working with the 1999 film’s late director Stanley Kubrick - blasted the ‘Mission: Impossible’ actor and questioned the chemistry between him and his then-wife Nicole Kidman in the movie, even though they have never met, reports ‘Female First UK’.

The 91-year-old scribe made the remarks in a letter he has written in his new book ‘Last Post’, in which he accused Tom, along with the filmmaker’s wife Christiane Harlan and her brother Jan of being responsible for his unflattering Wikipedia entry and trying to write him out of the director’s “history”.

According to Mail Online, he wrote: “There has been an incessant campaign, led by the Harlans, whom I never met during the two or three years of addressing myself exclusively to you, to deny that I had anything much to do with the final version of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. The Harlans and Master Cruise have managed to insert some derogatory stuff in my Wikipedia entry.

He further mentioned, quoted by ‘Female First UK’, “There must be some way of excising the libel, but I lack the modern skill or the dreary energy to pursue the matter. Their sullen purpose is to establish your grand-masterliness. I have never been called a liar by anyone as I have been by the Harlan clan and by Tom Cruise, egocentric control freak to whom I have never spoken. He did offer me a job though, soon after you finished shooting; the better to have me on a leash, no doubt. In his turn, he too seems to need the control he finds in Scientology”.

“‘Since Eyes Wide Shut’, he has spent a lot of time running for his living, winning fixed fights or hurtling into space. Nothing like a helmet for heading off dialogue”, he added. Frederic then questioned Kubrick’s judgement and motive behind his casting for the film. (IANS)

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