Tom Cruise‘s next blockbuster has temporarily hit a wall. Cruise was set to star alongside Ana de Armas in the underwater thriller, Deeper, which would have seen Cruise play a disgraced astronaut who comes upon a mysterious force when on a deep-sea mission. Unfortunately, though, according to Puck, the movie is now on hold due to concerns around the budget. The outlet reports that the project is now being shopped elsewhere by Cruise himself. The movie was initially set up at Warner Bros., but the studio reportedly was not willing to make the film with its near-$300 million price tag.
Deeper has been in development for years now, with different actors and directors attached at various stages. Prior to Cruise signing on, both Idris Elba and Bradly Cooper were said to be attached to the project. Meanwhile, Kornél Mundruczó and Baltasar Kormákur were both previously attached to the project, with Mundruczó originally set to direct Cooper in the film, and later with Kormákur on board to direct Elba in the movie. The script was originally written by controversial movie scribe Max Landis, with revisions said to be handled by Christopher McQuarrie.
Since David Zaslav took over as the President of Warner Bros. Discovery, the studio has been re-evaluating its output and development after previous box office struggles. This has resulted in tighter budgets and some projects ultimately being canceled or shopped elsewhere. With a reported $275 million budget on Deeper, it’s understandable why the project has been paused, especially if that’s merely the production budget and does not account for marketing. However, Cruise has shown that he is still one of the last movie stars in Hollywood and helped to lead Top Gun: Maverick to $1.49 billion at the worldwide box office. He’s also helped to grow the Mission: Impossible franchise into a box office success. With that said, though, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hasn’t been a huge box office hit and is said to have had a massive production budget that could see the movie fail to turn a profit.
With Cruise said to be shopping the project to other studios, it seems he’s still very much attached to Deeper along with Doug Liman, who Cruise has worked with before on Edge of Tomorrow. It’s unclear if Armas will remain attached if the movie switches studios, as this will set the production schedule back until it finds a new studio home.
Armas, of course, is coming off the launch of Ballerina, the John Wick spinoff which has been a success among critics, with a 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, but which has only secured $106 million at the global box office so far. While that’s well above the first John Wick‘s $86 million worldwide haul, it’s also well below John Wick 4‘s $447 million worldwide total. With a reported $275 million budget, Warner Bros. Discovery was more than likely worried about the lack of certainty as to whether or not Cruise and Armas could turn a guaranteed profit on an original thriller.
Although a release date was never officially announced for Deeper, it was expected to either hit theaters in late 2026 or early 2027. With the movie now said to be being shopped around, it’s unclear if or when it’ll actually be released.
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