Collateral: Frank Connor

Collateral

RELEASE DATE Aug. 6

WHY WE CAN'T WAIT We like the idea of Tom Cruise (pictured) playing evil for once, not to mention bouncing off volatile comic foil Jamie Foxx. Trust director Michael Mann, master of the coiled-tension thriller (''Manhunter,'' ''Heat''), to figure out what to do with these two.

THE PREMISE Hitman Cruise forces cultured cabbie Foxx to drive him around Los Angeles in search of his quarry.

SOURCE An original screenplay by Mann, Frank Darabont (''The Green Mile''), and ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' scribe Stuart Beattie

BURNING QUESTION Will audiences buy Cruise as a villain, especially one with short-cropped, chrome-dyed hair?

COME FOR The Cruise-Foxx chemistry

STAY FOR Mann's down-the-rabbit-hole tour of lurid L.A. nightlife