And so it begins…the summer blockbuster movies. With a bigger audience in the summer come bigger movies. In an effort to promote one of those movies, Tom Cruise granted a conference call interview with several college newspapers from around the country to discuss the highly anticipated remake “War of the Worlds.” Cruise is working with the master and possible pioneer of special effects, director Steven Spielberg once again to tell the story based on the H.G. Wells novel.

“War of the Worlds” is about Ray Ferrier (Cruise), a working class family man who shelters himself from his family. When the unexpected and unthinkable attack and invasion by aliens happens, he must save his family and fight for survival. Also starring is Dakota Fanning and Tim Robbins.

“Fanning is great,” said Cruise. “She is a very talented actress. Just personally, a sweetheart and funny. We laughed a lot.”

“Ray is a guy who is the total opposite of who I am. He doesn’t take responsibility for his children. He is not taking responsibility for his family or the future. But I understand Ray because I have lived in those kinds of blue collar areas growing up. I went to many different schools,” said Cruise. 

It was the sudden delay of Spielberg’s and Cruise’s other future projects that caused this film to be greenlighted. Similar to their past films, “War of the Worlds” contains all the genres of film and therefore welcomes all types of audiences.

“I most definitely enjoy communicating to audiences,” said Cruise. “I make movies for audiences. I definitely want them to see it. But I do believe that films have different audiences. A picture such as “Collateral” is not going to have the same kind of broad audience as a picture of “War of the Worlds” or “Mission Impossible” or “Magnolia.” But I do believe it is important to try to get that film out to that audience that is going to appreciate it and wants to see a movie like that,” said Cruise.

With two of Holly wood’s talented artists teaming up yet again (the last project Spielberg and Cruise worked on together was “Minority Report”), an estimated budget of $128 million, plus the score of John Williams and the screenplay of David Koepp (Jurassic Park), a critical and financial success is sure to follow.

“War of the Worlds” invades theaters on June 29. To check out the trailer, go to: http://www.waroftheworlds.com/.