Tom Cruise And Sam Raimi Working On ‘Sleeper’

Tom Cruise and Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi are setting up Sleeper at Warner Bros, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sleeper was a comic book series written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips and published by DC Comics under their Wildstorm imprint.

Sleeper centers 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.

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. Raimi has long been a fan of the book, and the project could have found homes at Sony and Regency if those issues hadn’t been so complex.

If Tom Cruise does end up starring in the film, it is likely that Warner Bros will aim to make a franchise out of it.