Cruise casts eye on 'Sleeper' (THR)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

Tom Cruise and Sam Raimi are setting up “Sleeper” at Warner Bros. Cruise is loosely attached to star in the DC Comics/Wildstorm comic book adaptation, The Hollywood Reporter says.

Raimi and his Star Road Entertainment partner Josh Donen are to produce.

Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips, "Sleeper," focuses on an operative whose fusion with an alien artifact makes him impervious to pain and allows him to pass it on to others through skin contact. He is placed undercover in a villainous organization by an intelligence agency and falls for a member of the group, named Miss Misery, notes THR.

Cruise, who is a co-owner of United Artists, is not tied exclusively to that company. Last week, Cruise’s longtime producing partner Paula Wagner resigned from UA.

Reports last week said that his next acting gig will be the Spyglass thriller "Tourist," a remake of the French film “Anthony Zimmer.” He has also reportedly expressed interest in the Working Title-Universal comedy "Food Fight."

Even if Cruise opts not to do "Sleeper," his interest in the project is propelling it forward, despite complicated rights issues that must be sorted out, THR says.

"Sleeper" is a spin-off book from Wildstorm flagship title "WildC.A.T.s" and features characters from another spin-off book, "Gen 13." Both books had been set up at different places and some of those deals were made before DC bought the imprint in 1999.

The project is being eyed as a possible franchise for Warners.