Is He ‘the Next Tom Cruise’?

NEW YORK — There is a Hollywood PR old-timer named Dale Olson who has been around the block once or twice. He had worked for everybody famous who ever hired the firm of Rogers & Cowan, including Rock Hudson, but then he retired several years ago.

Olson got so bored he went back into the biz and now represents the Academy Awards and a number of other important clients.

So when Olson says someone has “it,” I listen. Here’s his latest. There’s an 18-year-old kid from Dallas who Olson says could be “the next Tom Cruise.”

This Wunderkind is Miles Fisher, and we’ll see him when “Gods and Generals” is released next year. Producer-director-screenwriter Ron Maxwell tapped Fisher for a pivotal role as a heroic member of the 1st Regiment of Virginia Volunteers.

This is the Civil War film in which Oscar-winner Robert Duvall plays Robert E. Lee, and it is a prequel to the successful Ted Turner movie, “Gettysburg.”

Young Fisher is studying at St. Albans in Washington, D.C. He has made several other movies, including his own short film, “Head Shot,” which was among the 10,000 entries at the Toronto International Teen Film Festival.

There Fisher became one of the three best actor nominees.