Tom Cruise to Receive Honorary Busan Citizenship

SEOUL -- Tom Cruise will become an honorary citizen of Busan, officials of the South Korean city announced Tuesday.

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The actor will receive honorary citizenship when he visits the southern port city this week to promote Jack Reacher. Busan Mayor and Busan Film Festival chairman Hur Nam-sik will present special citizenship certificates to Cruise as well as the film's director, Christopher McQuarrie, and its lead actress, Rosamund Pike. The ceremony will be held Thursday at the Busan Cinema Center, the main venue of the Busan Film Festival.

"The visit of a top star and director will contribute to promoting Busan's important status in Asia for cinema," said a city official. "The city has decided to award the honorary citizenship to Mr. Cruise in recognition to his contribution to the industry."

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Busan has been the home to Korea's -- and Asia's -- largest annual film festival and is becoming an increasingly popular production site for both domestic and international films, but this will be the first time a red carpet premiere is being held there for a foreign movie outside of the festival period.

Cruise had requested to meet Korean fans -- who affectionately call him "friendly Uncle Tom" -- outside of Seoul, and Busan thus decided to host the premiere. The event will mark the 50-year-old's sixth visit to Korea and his first to a city other than the capital.

The Jack Reacher team will meet with local press in Seoul on Thursday before heading down for the premiere in Busan later that evening. The action film, about a homicide investigator, will open in Korean theaters on Jan. 17.