Tom Cruise is attached to star in Deeper, a supernatural thriller that Doug Liman has in early development, the filmmaker has revealed.
Liman shared the news with Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman at a recent NYC screening of the documentary Gaucho Gaucho, expressing his interest in crafting a “scary” movie at this stage of his career. “I have never done one,” said the director, “and neither has Tom.”
While reports have suggested that Deeper may be Liman’s next project, whether that’s actually the case is not yet clear. Sources have confirmed to Deadline that the film is currently set up at Warner Bros.
Deeper follows an astronaut who encounters a terrifying force while on a deep dive into a never-before-explored trench. In development for almost a decade, the project was originally set up at MGM in April 2016, following the studio’s acquisition of a hot spec from Max Landis. Originally, Bradley Cooper was to star, with Kornél Mundruczó directing; Idris Elba and filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur teamed on a later iteration that likewise failed to move forward.
Should the project come together at long last, it will be either the third our fourth for Cruise & Liman, on the heels of Edge of Tomorrow and American Made. Currently, the pair are also plotting a NASA film to be shot in outer space, in collaboration with SpaceX, which remains in development.
Most recently, Cruise entered talks to star in a sequel to his 1990 NASCAR drama Days of Thunder for Paramount Pictures. Coming off of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, the follow-up to which hits theaters next summer, he’s next set to roll cameras on a new Alejandro G. Iñárritu film for Warner Bros and Legendary, about which not much is known.
Liman is coming off success with his Road House remake, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, which garnered Amazon MGM Studios’ biggest-ever debut, and Apple’s heist pic The Instigators, starring Casey Affleck and Matt Damon. Both films are said to have sequels in development.
