Deeper: Tom Cruise and Doug Liman reteam for supernatural thriller

About nine years ago, a supernatural thriller script called Deeper, written by Max Landis, was the subject of a bidding war that MGM ended up winning. They forked over a seven figure amount. At the time, the project had Bradley Cooper on board to play the lead character and Kornel Mundruczo (White God) was set to direct it. In 2017, Gal Gadot entered negotiations to join Cooper in the cast. But the deal was never closed with Gadot, Cooper had to drop out due to scheduling issues, and Mundruczo followed him out the door. Baltasar Kormakur (2 Guns) was then hired to direct the film, and in 2019, Idris Elba stepped up to replace Cooper in the lead. The project was shelved in response to allegations that Landis had emotionally and/or physically abused multiple women, so Kormakur and Elba went off and made Beast together instead. But now, Deeper is being revived, with Doug Liman on board to direct the film and Tom Cruise attached to star in it.

Liman and Cruise previously worked together on Edge of Tomorrow and American Made.

There’s speculation that Landis’s script will be given a substantial rewrite so the filmmakers can downplay his contributions, as happened with his most recently produced screenplay, 2020’s Shadow in the Cloud. Since the project has been in and out of development with three different directors involved over the last decade, chances are high that it has already received several rewrites.

Deeper centers on a disgraced astronaut who embarks on a mission to reach the bottom of a newly-discovered oceanic trench, which some speculate may be the lowest point on Earth. Facing great danger, he quickly finds himself in a physical and psychological fight against mysterious forces.

Even though Cruise’s character is a disgraced astronaut, it should be noted that Deeper and the space movie that Cruise and Liman have been planning to make for years (with filming to take place in space) are separate projects.

Liman confirmed their involvement with Deeper to Showbiz411, telling the site that they plan to make this a “scary” movie. “I have never done one, and neither has Tom Cruise.” I guess they don’t consider the Cruise-starring Interview with the Vampire to be scary.

So Deeper has passed from Kornel Mundruczo and Baltasar Kormakur to Doug Liman and from Bradley Cooper and Idris Elba to Tom Cruise. What do you think of Liman and Cruise reteaming for this supernatural thriller? Let us know by leaving a comment below.