As much as it was proclaimed the death of Tom Cruises career, the parting from Paramount seems to have been nothing but good news for him as word is out that he has three films in negotiations with names like Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Spike Lee.

The first is an independent film, which Variety through Coming Soon say is the current favourite, called Lions for Lambs. It is a political drama which concentrates on a platoon of US soldiers in Afghanistan, written by Matthew Carnahan who has just written State of Play and currently looking at Redford to direct. Cruise would play a congressman while Streep would play a journalist.

The Ha-Ha is a story about a Gulf War soldier who has returned home with injuries that have rendered him mute. Through the turn of fate hes charged with the care of a nine year old girl whose mother has disappeared. It is based on a Dave King novel.

The third option is Selling Time, a Lee film which sounds incredibly intriguing. Its about a man who sells back chunks of time in his life in order to relive and alter what he sees as the worst day of his life.

All of the projects sound hugely interesting. I would suspect that Lions for Lambs sounds the strongest. Both other choices seem to have similar sounds to projects hes been involved in before, but which would work better? Theres the option of the heart rendering film with Ha-Ha, or the slightly surreal science fiction idea of selling time and revisiting the past.

If I was to make a call Id say he should chose Lambs first, Time second and the heart string tugging film last. I feel that there would be some resistance from the audience in believing him in that role, and the other two roles have a slightly familiar feel to them and might be more accessible. What do you think?

Its not as if his career is suffering after his recent break, all these films sound very high profile and could all provide a great platform for his acting talent.