TOM CRUISE FESTIVAL

MNet Stars to host a series of movies featuring Tom Cruise.

From January 7 to 10, MNet Stars will run a series of movies featuring Tom Cruise. These include Top Gun, Legend, Mission Impossible I and Mission Impossible II.

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV better known to the world as Tom Cruise, starred in his first leading role in the film Risky Business in 1983 - which has been described as "A Generation-X classic, and a career-maker" for the actor.

In 2006, Tom Cruise topped the Forbes “Celebrity 100 list of the most powerful celebrities – the list was generated using a combination of income, web references, press clips, television and radio mentions amongst other criterion. In the ‘90’s; he was ranked three times among the 50 most beautiful people in the world by People magazine. And in 1997 Empire magazine named him among the top five movie stars of all time.

Top Gun will be screened on January 7 at 19h30 in which Tom Cruise stars alongside Kelly McGillis. The film was directed in 1986 by Tony Scott. A young Tom Cruise plays a gung-ho student fighter pilot vying for the title of Top Gun as well as the heart of a cute flying instructor in this ‘80s classic. Top Gun won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for the song Take My Breath Away. The action drama is set in the US Navy’s elite Fight Weapons School for advanced fighter pilots. Cruise plays Maverick, a talented fly boy with unorthodox manoeuvres in and out of the cockpit. (Trivia: October 10, 2006, was declared "Tom Cruise Day" in Japan; the Japan Memorial Day Association said that he was awarded with a special day because he has made more trips to Japan than any other Hollywood star. The movie had box office earnings of: $353,816,701)

Legend will be screened on January 08 at 19h30. Directed by Riddley Scott in 1985, it features Tom Cruise alongside Mia Sara. From the director of Alien, Hannibal and Gladiator comes this Oscar-nominated fantasy about a world in which humans live side-by-side with fairies, unicorns and goblins. Jack is a young forest dweller who falls in love with Lily, a beautiful princess. But Jack has competition: Darkness, a demon who lives in the depths of the earth, wants Lily for himself. When Darkness lures Lily into the underworld, it’s up to Jack and a small army of mythical creatures to rescue her and save the world from eternal night.

Mission Impossible I will be screened on January 9 at 19h30. Directed by Brian De Palma in 1996, Tom Cruise appears alongside Emmanuelle Beart. There’s a traitor in the top secret agency Impossible Missions Force and it’s up to Ethan Hunt and his fellow spies to draw him out by offering him something he wants – information about spies. But something goes horribly wrong and everyone on the mission except for Hunt is killed. Suspicion soon falls on Hunt, and he is forced to go on the run to find what went wrong - and who set them up. With the help of two blacklisted agents and a beautiful woman, Hunt embarks on an adventure that is not only dangerous, but close to impossible. This slick update of a TV series was co-produced by Tom Cruise. (Trivia: Worldwide box office earnings: $457.6 million)

Mission Impossible II completes the festival on January 10 at 19h30 with Tom Cruise starring with Thandie Newton in this flamboyant sequel directed in 2000 by John Woo. Ethan Hunt is busy climbing a mountain when he receives news of his latest assignment. Seems fellow secret agent Sean Ambrose has, in a dramatic mid-air hijacking, stolen a lethal man-made virus and killed its creator. Now Hunt has to assemble a team, including Ambrose’s ex-girlfriend, to get close to Ambrose and find out what he’s planning. (Trivia: Worldwide box office earnings: $545,902,562)