Warner Bros. Halts Tom Cruise’s Underwater Thriller Deeper Over Budget Dispute

He is leveraging his non-exclusive pact to pitch the project to rival studios after Warner Bros. rejected its $275 million budget

Overview

Warner Bros. executives Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy paused development this week when Cruise and director Doug Liman insisted on a roughly $275 million production budget that exceeded the studio’s $230 million threshold.
The decision reflects tighter budget scrutiny under Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav, who has reined in high-cost projects following recent box-office disappointments like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Cruise is now shopping Deeper to other studios, with Universal Pictures emerging as the most likely new backer under his non-exclusive deal with Warner Bros.
It remains unclear whether star Ana de Armas and key creative personnel will stay attached if Deeper relocates, a shift that could delay the start of production.
First announced in 2016, Deeper has cycled through multiple actors and directors and undergone major script rewrites by Christopher McQuarrie after an original draft by Max Landis.