President of Comnidyne Industries . Tom Cruise , Philip Seymour Hoffman and Jeff Bridges had been approached by New Line Cinema to take the role , described as a psychopathic master manipulator with an attractive wife . Spacey signed up for the role in June 2010 . The part was considered " integral " to the film . Gordon commented that the character was an amalgamation of several real bosses ( rather than one single person ) to avoid being sued .