After stepping out as a stylish, super-powered supervillain in the recent first trailer for Hobbs & Shaw, we're now getting another high-profile role for Golden Globe-winner Idris Elba. The multi-hyphenate talent is reportedly in negotiations to star in Deeper, a supernatural sci-fi thriller in the works at MGM. Max Landis (Bright) wrote the script, from which Baltasar Kormakur (2 Guns) will direct.

As THR reports, should the deal close, Elba's casting in the lead role is the next necessary step to getting Deeper into production in earnest. MGM dropped a seven-figure sum for the script a few years back. Elba would play the part of a disgraced astronaut who journeys into a newly discovered oceanic trench on a deep-sea dive, only to find himself facing a sinister and dangerous force. While the tone of Deeper has been compared to that of Gravity and The Martian, it sounds an awful lot more like Event Horizon meets The Abyss.

When last we reported, Bradley Cooper and Gal Gadot were attached to star with Kornel Mundruczo (White God) directing, but each of them stepped away from the project for various reasons, forcing MGM to either scrap it entirely or rebuild. With Elba now anchoring the deep-sea story, hopefully a new cast can be built around him. He'll next be seen in Hobbs & Shaw this August, followed by Cats this December. As for Deeper, David Goyer, Kevin Turen, Russell Ackerman, John Schoenfelder and Landis are producing the project.

For more of our previous coverage on Deeper and the film's many twists and turns on the road to production, check out the stories linked below:

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Image via Universal Pictures