SUBMITTED BY Scooby

December 2, 2001 — Tom Cruise believes that 'Vanilla Sky' is a movie that will make you think:

Vanilla Sky is based on the surreal Spanish film Open your Eyes. Cruise recalls why he felt this passionate need to buy the US rights for the film. "By the time I got to the credits, I remember just being on the edge of my seat, calling and saying: 'Look - just buy this movie. Buy this movie.' And I had to sit down and think about what this movie was about. I found myself discussing it with people who hadn't even seen it and wanting to talk about it, and some of the questions it was asking. When I showed it to Cameron we sat down and started having a dialogue about the film. It was one of those films that, in deals, you have - we just bought it." Cruise didn't see it as uniquely Spanish. "The thing that was fascinating to me about the film is that it's not culturally-based. When you look at Open Your Eyes, it's kind of dealing with universal themes and those characters could have been anybody. It also left it open-ended where it left room for interpretation," and once Tom brought in friend Cameron Crowe to adapt and direct it, that was the key. "Cameron could step in and I knew that it could be a Cameron Crowe movie - same story but a Cameron Crowe picture. A lot of the themes that Cameron was exploring were the things we talked about. I also feel that the movie is very much a love story."