Cruise jnr finds his forte in the family business

His parents boast an Oscar and four Golden Globes between them and are considered to be among the most beautiful people on celluloid.

Now, it appears that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman's son has stepped out from under their considerable shadows to consolidate his own burgeoning acting career in Hollywood.

Connor Cruise, who was adopted by Cruise and Kidman in 1995, may be only 14 but he is set to take on his second starring film role, in a remake of the 1984 action war drama Red Dawn, says the Hollywood Reporter.

The original film, which featured the fictional onset of World War III after America is invaded by the Soviet Union and its Central American allies, helped to propel its then little-known leads, Patrick Swayze and Charlie Sheen, to worldwide fame. It garnered controversy for its brutality - it was named the most violent film by the Guinness Book of Records.

It is not known if this remake will follow the same lines but it is hoped that it will do for Connor Cruise what the original did for Swayze's career a quarter of a century ago.

The film follows a group of American high school students who call themselves the Wolverines, after their local football team, who resist their evil foreign invaders. Connor is set to play Daryl, the youngest in this group. Filming is due to begin in Detroit next month and it is scheduled to be released in September 2010. Dan Bradley, who has worked on such cinematic blockbusters as Independence Day, The Bourne Supremacy and Quantum of Solace, is directing. Tony Gilroy, who is a seasoned screenwriter of such action films as State of Play and the Bourne trilogy is reportedly rewriting the script.

Connor Cruise, who is of African-American heritage, made his big screen debut last year as the young Will Smith character in the drama Seven Pounds.

The film opened just six days before his father's World War II premiere, Valkyrie.

Cruise, 46, said recently that his son had grown up with acting around him but that as a father, he had been careful not to put any pressure on him to follow his career path. "Who knows what he's going to do?" he said.

Driving him to the audition for his first film role was "a great father-son moment", he added.

Cruise and Kidman adopted Connor and a daughter, Isabella, during their 11-year marriage.

- INDEPENDENT