Director Doug Liman has hinted Tom Cruise is to lead his supernatural thriller 'Deeper'.
The project has been in and out of development since 2016, though the 59-year-old filmmaker has suggested the 'Mission: Impossible' star is attached to the film, which is reportedly now moving ahead at Warner Bros.
Liman shared the news with Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman at a recent NYC screening of the documentary Gaucho Gaucho. he said: "I have never done one, and neither has Tom."
'Deeper' follows an astronaut who stumbles upon a terrifying force during an expedition into a never-before-explored trench.
The film initially entered development eight years ago at MGM Studios after the company bought the story from writer Max Landis.
Originally, 'Deeper' was to star Bradley Cooper – with 'Pieces of a Woman' filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó attached as director, though the pair later exited the project.
Then Idris Elba and 'The Sea' director Baltasar Kormákur signed on to the movie, though they too would leave the film, causing MGM to ice the project.
If 'Deeper' does enter full development at Warner Bros., it will be the fourth picture Liman and Cruise have collaborated on, with the pair previously working together on 'Edge of Tomorrow' and 'American Dream', and are currently looking to make a NASA flick.
The Hollywood duo first collaborated on 2014's 'Edge of Tomorrow', which starred Cruise as Major William Cage who finds himself stuck in an endless time loop in the same brutal fight against an alien invasion.
This battle forces the soldier to relive the fight, and his death, endlessly, until he and his comrade Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt) gradually improve with each battle until they are ultimately able to overcome their foes.
A sequel to 'Edge of Tomorrow' has been on the table since 2016 when Liman revealed he had started working on a follow-up titled 'Live Die Repeat and Repeat', though updates on the film have been few and far between.
However, Liman recently insisted the project is alive and well, though emphasised he would only move ahead with the sequel if he considered its story to be "better" than the original.
When The Hollywood Reporter asked the director if a second 'Edge of Tomorrow' was no longer on the cards, he said: "No one has given up on it. The good and the bad news is that I’m so proud of that movie.
"I hadn’t watched it in years, but I’ve started re-watching it this year. I recently re-watched the movie with the studio. I’ve watched it with Tom Cruise. I’m going to re-watch it with Emily Blunt.
"So the good news is that I’m like, 'Wow, it’s a really good movie,' but the bad news is that I’m like, 'Wow, it’s a really good movie. I only want to do a sequel if I can do it better.'
"But I’m trying to do that, so there’s hardly a day that goes by that I don’t spend a little bit of time figuring out how to do it and do it better."
