Director Doug Liman says he’s making Deeper, a ‘scary’ undersea supernatural thriller, with Tom Cruise as its star.
Director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise have long planned to work together again after collaborating on Edge Of Tomorrow and American Made. And according to a new report, that is still set to happen – just not in the guise we expected. When thinking about a Liman/Cruise collaboration at Warner Bros, a sequel to 2014’s Edge Of Tomorrow might spring to mind – but no, it seems like the duo could be cooking up something different.
Showbiz411’s Roger Friedman (via World of Reel) quotes Doug Liman as saying that his next film will be Deeper, starring Tom Cruise. It’s a project that Warner Bros has reportedly been trying to get off the ground for a decade under the stewardship of several different filmmakers.
Liman tells Friedman that he and Cruise plan to make a “scary” movie. “I have never done one,” said Liman, “and neither has Tom.” Deeper was originally conceived by Max Landis, the writer behind 2012’s Chronicle and 2017’s Bright. Landis was dropped by his manager following multiple sexual assault allegations in 2019. Deeper was first announced in 2016 and has had several stars attached to it at various points, including Idris Elba, Bradley Cooper and Gal Gadot.
Assuming Landis’s original screenplay hasn’t been rewritten into oblivion, Deeper follows a former astronaut turned deep sea diver who pilots a submersible to the deepest point on earth. The deeper he goes, the more sinister and ghostly his encounters become. We’ve seen plenty of other genre films take place in similar locations, including James Cameron’s The Abyss and William Eubank’s somewhat overlooked Underwater (2020) starring Kristen Stewart and Vincent Cassel. Deeper is more claustrophobic and modest in scope than either of those, though with Cruise attached, the story could end up being expanded into something more befitting a big movie star.
Several filmmakers have also been involved with the project up to this point too, with Kornel Mundruczo and Baltasar Kormakur involved at certain points. With Liman and Cruise reportedly attached, we’d imagine that things will certainly move forwards this time, especially if Liman is calling this his ‘next film.’ It’s unclear how Deeper fits with Luna Park, Cruise and Liman’s long-billed movie partly set – and actually shot – in space.
As for Cruise, once work is done on the next Mission: Impossible film, he’s set to work with Jesse Plemons, Riz Ahmed, Sandra Hüller and more in Alejandro G Iñárritu’s next film which is set to shoot early next year. There’s also talk of sequels to Top Gun: Maverick and Days Of Thunder. Deeper could potentially fit into the star’s schedule for next year while those two big sequel flicks are still being developed. We’ll bring you more on this supernatural thriller as we hear it.
