Idris Elba To Star In Undersea Horror Film Deeper

Is there anything that can’t be improved by the addition of Idris Elba, People Magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive for 2018? The MCU is poorer now that Heimdall’s toast, and the actor’s still bandied about as a potential James Bond, Batman or any number of major roles. It seems everyone wants a piece of him, and understandably so.

Later this year he’ll turn up in Hobbs & Shaw, whose first trailer just landed, but it looks like his next project could be MGM’s Deeper, an undersea horror film that’s sounding an awful lot like James Cameron’s 1989 classic The Abyss. 

Here’s the summary:

“Deeper is a supernatural thriller that centers on a disgraced astronaut, to be played by Elba, who is on a deep-sea dive exploring a newly discovered trench but soon finds himself confronted by a sinister and dangerous force.”

The film is set to be helmed by Everest director Baltasar Kormakur and written by Max Landis, with a tone in the same ballpark as Gravity and The Martian. It’s a project that’s been in the oven for a while now, too, with the script being acquired from Landis by MGM for a reported seven figure sum. Since then, there’s been one attempt to get it into production, with Bradley Cooper in the lead role, Gal Gadot supporting and White God‘s Kornel Mundruczo directing. That fell through, though, and the studio decided to completely retool the project.

Personally, I’m pretty psyched for this one because I always enjoy a deep sea adventure on film. I love The Abyss, and I’m even a sucker for stuff like Sphere, Deep Rising and games like Subnautica and Soma. There’s just something horribly oppressive about the huge weight of water above you, combined with the isolation of being that far underwater and the threat of mysterious denizens of the deep all around. As such, my anticipation is pretty high for Deeper, let’s just hope this iteration of the project swims rather than sinks.