WORTHINGTON, THERON GO "TOURIST" ROUTE

Sam Worthington will star with Charlize Theron in “The Tourist,” the Spyglass remake of the 2005 French thriller “Anthony Zimmer” that will be directed by Bharat Nalluri.

Theron has been attached since last year to play a female Interpol agent who uses an American tourist in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal who was her former lover. The Australian actor will play the American tourist.

Worthington came into the loop after Tom Cruise dropped out. “The Tourist” was one of the projects he seriously considered before selecting the untitled James Mangold-directed action comedy that was once titled “Wichita,” which Cruise will star in alongside Cameron Diaz.

While Cruise’s infatuation definitely stalled the momentum of the picture--Spyglass originally had hoped to put into production last March--Theron’s presence kept it viable. Now it looks like it’s back on track with Worthington, who follows “Terminator Salvation” by starring in the James Cameron-directed 3-D drama “Avatar” for 20th Century Fox.

“The Tourist” was originally written by Julian Fellowes, and then rewritten by Chris McQuarrie, who worked closely with notes from Cruise. Jeff Nachmanoff revised McQuarrie's draft.

Spyglass has yet to set it with a domestic distributor.