I remember a couple of years ago some punk made up a bullshit rumour about Matt Damon and Ben Affleck starring in a remake of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” and managed to convince a few websites – not us; his return email bounced so I knew automatically it had to be a venomous epistle- of its legitimacy. It even hit the radio stations here – locally in Australia – and quite a few major newspapers. For all I know, people had even started pre-booking tickets for it on Moviefone.

Now, the U.K rag The Daily Express is reporting that Tom Cruise is interested in remaking the Newman/Redford classic. Yes, it’s the rather fly-by-night Daily Express doing the reporting –but at least it’s not some funny-named kid with the spelling skills of a 6-year-old writing from a non-existent hotmail account.

I question it, but there are enough plausible facts here to imply it could be real.

- Cruise has apparently got the blessing of Paul Newman, and we know that he could’ve, as he and his “Color of Money” co-star are still good friends.
- Cruise has a woody for the Western – he was circling “3:10 to Yuma” at one stage, and loved the genre so much he made a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo in “Young Guns” at the request of his pal Emilio Estevez back in the 80s.

Oh, and who would play the Sundance to Cruise’s Butch? None other than John Travolta, another close friend – and fellow scientologist – of the “Valkyrie” star. They’ve apparently been looking to do something together for quite some time. I’d believe that. They do seem close.

“Butch and Sundance is a labour of love for Tom,” said a source close to the star. “He was eight years old when he saw the original and it made an impression that has stayed with him all his life. He can’t wait to get to work.”

Let’s see how this one pans out.