So what is Tom Cruise going to follow up “Valkyrie” with?

Cruise’s last actual hit movie was released in June 2006 — that was “Mission: Impossible 3,” and although it was very well made by director J.J. Abrams, it was not the monster that its predecessors had been.

Since then, Cruise has appeared in the dreadful box office loser, “Lions for Lambs,” and made his popular cameo appearance as an offensive movie producer in “Tropic Thunder.”

“Valkyrie,” which kicked up a storm of controversy, made a little over $83 million domestically during its run. It wasn’t a flop, but for Cruise it was below his average $100 million take and well below the Mission: Impossible movies, almost by half.

The film has taken in a little more than $100 million in the rest of the world, with its biggest successes in Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and China, where it made over $7 million.

In Germany, where “Valkyrie” was supposed to rehabilitate Cruise’s image and ingratiate his frowned upon Scientology, the movie made a middling $10 million. It opened and closed fast, already off the charts. By contrast, “The Reader” is number 1 and has made more money. “Twilight” did $20 million there. “Benjamin Button” has done almost $19 million. “Australia” has taken in $15.5.

Also, “Valkyrie” — which probably cost more like $150 million total when all the bookkeeping is done — brought the end of Cruise’s producing partnership with Paula Wagner and threw his deal with MGM to make movies at their United Artists into question.

Now it’s mid March, and Cruise has no movies in the can for 2009 or even 2010. If he doesn’t start something soon, he could miss the summer 2010 release schedule.

There have been problems. Cruise was replaced in the movie he was supposed to make, “Edwin Salt,” by Angelina Jolie. The script was rewritten for a female protagonist.

Now comes word from insiders that Cruise’s potential replacement for that project, The 28th Amendment, may be falling apart. Just two weeks ago rumors surfaced that Cruise might join Denzel Washington in the thriller, with extremely tall German director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck — who won the 2007 Best Foreign Film for his extraordinary The Lives of Others — running the show.

Florian is now said to be looking at other actors besides Cruise. These things can always be worked out, but even the original announcement of this was odd. Von Dommersmarck is German, for one thing, and certainly has opinions about the questionable “Valkyrie.” Also, the star of his “Lives of Others,” Sebastian Koch, starred in an earlier and better German made film called “Operation: Valkyrie.”

Also, FYI, von Dommersmarck is about a foot taller than Cruise.

Still, Cruise has a bunch of titles listed as “in development,” including the film version of Robert Ludlum’s “The Matarese Circle” and Paul Haggis’s “An Ordinary Spy.” On a positive note, Katie Holmes’s manager, the very savvy John Carrabino, recently told me: “People are lined up around the block to do business with Tom.”

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