Cruise's Blockbuster Sleeper
Actor in talks to adapt comic with Sam Raimi.
by Todd Gilchrist

August 19, 2008 - On Tuesday, August 19, 2008, The Hollywood Reporter announced that Tom Cruise is setting up an adaptation of the DC Comics property Sleeper at Warner Brothers. Although Cruise currently co-owns United Artists, he is not obligated to generate products for the company, and is discussing the forthcoming comic book adaptation as a collaboration with director Sam Raimi (Spider-Man).



According to THR, Cruise is interested in developing the film project even if he elects not to participate in it himself as a star. As of publication of the story legal rights are currently tangled up in various lawsuits, but his potential partner Raimi (as well as Raimi's partner Josh Donen) have kept an eye on the property for some time and would like to develop it into a film.



At the same time, the expectation is that Sleeper will not only be a future franchise for Warner Brothers, but a starring vehicle for Cruise, who would presumably play the main character, a mortal who fuses with an alien artifact and becomes impervious to pain.

Brad Ingelsby, a newcomer to the professional screenwriting scene, has been hired to script the comic book film adaptation Sleeper for Warner Bros.



The project is based on the DC Comics/Wildstorm penned by Ed Brubaker. According to both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, Spider-Man director Sam Raimi and his partner Josh Donen will produce via their Stars Road Entertainment banner.


Tom Cruise has expressed interest in Sleeper but is not formally attached to star in it.



As THR reminds us, Sleeper's "protagonist, Holden Carver, is a spy stranded in a criminal organization but in possession of a superhuman imperviousness to pain derived from an alien artifact."