Henry Cavill replaces Tom Cruise in 'The Man from UNCLE'

How much confidence does Warner Bros. have not only in Man of Steel, but in its star, Henry Cavill? With Tom Cruise suddenly dropping out of Guy Ritchie's The Man from UNCLE in order to invest his energies in Mission: Impossible 5, the studio was suddenly without an A-lister to front the film, which has had more than its share of casting trouble already. So it's a sign of their utter faith in Cavill that he's the guy they want to step in and fill Cruise's shoes.

Cavill has entered talks to take the lead role of American spy Napoleon Solo in the big screen take on the 1960s TV series. He'll join fellow fast-rising stars Armie Hammer and Alicia Vikander as agents from the titular espionage agency battling the threat of THRUSH, a global terrorist outfit. The studio must love Cavill at this point, as they had been looking at him to co-star in Ron Howard's In the Heart of the Sea opposite Chris Hemsworth.

This marks a drastic tone shift for the film, though, as Cruise could have been seen as the veteran spy with Hammer as his younger protege. Now this is definitely skewing for the youth demographic, which should make Warner Bros. happy as they have clear franchise hopes for it. Cavill has come a long way for an actor most are still unfamiliar with, and is basically unproven as a box office star. His two biggest films so far were Tarsem Singh's Immortals, and the largely-unseen action film The Cold Light of Day opposite Bruce Willis. [Variety]