A little over a month since Tom Cruise signed his new deal with Warner Bros. to develop and produce original and franchise theatrical films over the next several years, it sounds like his first film under the deal will be one to remember and should have film fans extremely excited.
Deadline is reporting that Warner Bros. and Legendary Entertainment are in advanced negotiations to acquire an untitled new film from 4x Academy Award-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, that would star Cruise in the lead role.
Iñárritu co-wrote the screenplay last year with Sabina Berman, and his Oscar-winning Birdman scribes Alexander Dinelaris and Nicolas Giacobone. He'll also serve as a producer alongside Cruise, Warner Bros., and Legendary.
Plot details are being kept under heavy lock and key, and, by all accounts, the film is being treated as top secret. As per the report, Iñárritu had been taking meetings with a select few A-list actors over the past several weeks, with Cruise being one of the first, and it looks like things moved fairly quickly as the Top Gun: Maverick star was onboard pretty much as soon as their conversation ended.
This will be Iñárritu's first studio film since 2015's The Revenant, a film which earned him his second consecutive Academy Award for Best Director. His more prominent credits also include Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Biutiful, Babel, and 21 Grams.
At the moment, Cruise is hard at work filming the highly anticipated eighth chapter in his blockbuster Mission: Impossible franchise. However, his upcoming slate, which now includes the untitled Iñárritu film, is getting exceedingly interesting.
As for what's been confirmed, the 4x Academy Award-nominated megastar, currently has his SpaceX film set up at Universal with Doug Liman, which is tentatively scheduled to start shooting next year, although that's likely subject to change with his new projects. It was also recently reported that Cruise is in talks for a pivotal role in Quentin Tarantino's final film The Movie Critic, which may go to Warner Bros. or Sony, and there have been active negotiations with WB about an Edge of Tomorrow sequel as well.
In a Variety report earlier this week, we learned that Cruise may be looking to pivot from action somewhat and seek out directors like Iñárritu and Paul Thomas Anderson, amongst others, and it seems as though we're already seeing that in action with this latest news.