Those who pooh-poohed Tom Cruise’s cameo in Tropic Thunder are proven wrong, with today‘s announcement that the character is getting his own spin-off movie, his “life rights” having been secured by Red Hour Films’ Ben Stiller and Stuart Cornfeld, who will co-produce. This is a win for Cruise — something that reinvents him and keeps him “hip,” or at least tangibly connected to a younger generation — but also something of a departure for a guy who, in his career, has frequently made Delorme cartographers look like radical, free-wheeling anarchists. I don’t yet know of Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World, but screenwriter Michael Bacall had better figure out a way to make Grossman a bit less voluble, to temper his excesses. He’s more naturally a supporting character, in other words. Ninety-plus minutes with someone this “on” can be debilitating.