Tom Cruise doesn’t hear “no” very often in Hollywood — but that might be changing.
After Paramount backed the $400M-budgeted Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, only for it to deliver lukewarm box office returns, Cruise is now running into a wall at Warner Bros.
The project is “Deeper,” which I previously reported was aiming for an August shoot. This underwater action thriller, directed by Doug Liman and starring Ana de Armas, was initially pegged by Deadline at a $200M budget, but Cruise had been pushing for $275M.
Warner Bros. gave no indication early on that the studio was getting cold feet, especially since it had already sunk money into early development, including pre-vis. However, suddenly changed. The studio’s ceiling for the budget reportedly now stops at $230M, and sources say they’ve made it clear they’re not going higher.
That shift left Cruise and his team scrambling to relocate the film in time for this summer’s shoot. Now, according to Puck’s Matt Belloni, the whole thing has officially hit a wall, with Liman looking around for other projects as his potential next film.
Deeper, the underwater adventure that Cruise hoped to start shooting with de Armas this month for director Doug Liman, is now stalled over budget issues. Universal, which has been suggested as another possible home for Deeper, hasn’t even heard a pitch, and Liman is said to be looking at other projects.
Universal was apparently in the mix to acquire “Deeper,” but the budget demands from Cruise and company are proving too steep. Cruise was reportedly eager to get this one going, having already spent months in prep mode with de Armas.
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.
What studio is willing to drop $275M on an original, underwater sci-fi film with no built-in audience? Even with Tom Cruise attached, there’s no guaranteed hit. If I were a betting man, I’d wager it will never see the light of day.