Back in August 2024, I started circulating this project as a rumor. We now have confirmation, including a budget, the cast, and a production date.
Doug Liman will indeed be shooting “Deeper,” with Tom Cruise and Ana de Armas, this coming August. Deadline had previously reported that the budget on this thing would hit the $200M mark.
De Armas and Cruise have been doing the diving training required for the project, and the plan is for this to be Cruise’s next film — it might even come out next year, before his Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu film, which is set for October 2026. The project was waiting for Christopher McQuarrie to put the finishing touches on the last draft of the script, and I’m told it’s ready to go.
Originally written by Max Landis, “Deeper” was first announced in 2016. Since then, a number of high-profile actors — including Idris Elba, Bradley Cooper, and Gal Gadot — were at one point attached to the project. Directors Kornel Mundruczó and Baltasar Kormákur were also previously linked to helm the film in 2016 and 2019, respectively.
Liman has described “Deeper” as a “supernatural thriller.” The story follows a disgraced astronaut, played by Cruise, who embarks on a deep-sea mission to explore a recently discovered ocean trench, only to encounter a mysterious and dangerous force.
The screenplay was once acquired by MGM for a substantial seven-figure sum. However, the studio eventually dropped the project after multiple allegations of emotional and sexual abuse were made against Landis. His most recent credit was a co-writing role on 2020’s “Shadow in the Cloud,” although that script was heavily revised by Roseanne Liang.
“Deeper” will mark the third collaboration between Cruise and Liman, who previously worked together on “Edge of Tomorrow” and “American Made.” They’re also developing an ambitious project with NASA that will involve filming in space, but don’t bet on that one moving out of development any time soon.
While James L. Brooks teased last year that "we'll soon be seeing" Jack Nicholson, 89, act again, and that he was "reading scripts," that idea has now been shut down by his close friend Michael Douglas, 82.