Tom Cruise has three potential projects lined up for his acting comeback, two months after Paramount Pictures severed ties with the star.

Variety reports that Cruise is most likely to opt for independent production Lions for Lambs - a political drama involving US troops in Afghanistan that Robert Redford is likely to direct. Cruise would play the role of a congressman in the feature, with Meryl Streep also being courted by producers.

The two other possible productions are Spike Lee's Selling Time about a man trying to change the worst day of his life, and The Ha-Ha, where Cruise would play a mute Gulf War vet.