Milo and Others Read for ‘Paper Wings’

Tom Cruise, Will Smith, Anna Kendrick, Milo Ventimiglia and a few other actors were photographed leaving the Saddle Ranch in West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip on Tuesday morning. The restaurant is famous for its karaoke, crazy parties and a mechanical bull. Some gossip sites were quick to report that it was a four-hour Scientology event, since a good selection of the actors involved are Scientologists. But it was later confirmed to be a table read for a movie called Paper Wings, which is being developed at Smith’s company Overbrook Entertainment.

Other actors at the table reading included Chad Michael Murray, Eric Dane, Tate Donovan, Tom Skerritt, Tom Arnold, Johnny Galecki, and Jenna Elfman. A rep for Overbrook tells Access to “Please note that any actor’s presence at this table read does not mean that they have officially signed onto this project.” The Hollywood Reporter mentions that Cruise is actively seeking other roles incase Mission: Impossible 4 falls through, noting Paper Wings as one of the prospects.

Apparently the film involves a champion bull rider who falls for an up-and-coming country singer (to be played by Reese Witherspoon). The Saddle Ranch was chosen/rented out for the reading because the location provided the right ambience for the project. Gabriele Muccino, the Italian filmmaker behind Smith’s Seven Pounds and The Pursuit of Happyness, has been approached to direct the film, but no contracts have been signed.