It appears that Tom Cruise is becoming quite fond of the science-fiction genre. The actor stars in director Joseph Kosinski’s sci-fi pic Oblivion, which opens this weekend, and he recently wrapped the starring role in Doug Liman’s sci-fi thriller All You Need Is Kill. Now Cruise has become attached to star in an adaptation of author Chōhei Kambayashi’s sci-fi novel series Yukikaze for Warner Bros. The book series takes place on an Earth ravaged by war, where a hyper-dimensional passageway opened up over Antarctica thirty years previously, setting into motion events that would find the human race uniting to fight off the mysterious alien force known as JAM.
Cruise would play a second lieutenant who is tasked with heading into enemy territory—the alien home planet Fairy—and gathering information that can bring an end to the war once and for all. Hit the jump for more.
News of Cruise’s involvement comes courtesy of Deadline, who adds that All You Need Is Kill’s Tom Lassally will produce Yukikaze alongside Erwin Stoff. A director or screenwriter has yet to be attached, and it’s clear that Yukikaze is in the early stages of development. The project is just one of many that Cruise is currently attached to, as he’s developing another Mission: Impossible film with his Jack Reacher director Christopher McQuarrie at the helm and the two are also working on another Lee Child adaptation for a Jack Reacher follow-up. Most recently, Cruise entered negotiations to star in Guy Ritchie’s adaptation of the 1960s spy TV series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. No word on which project will be Cruise’s next, but we’ll likely have a clearer idea of his short term slate once Oblivion opens.
Read the synopsis for Chōhei Kambayashi’s Yukikaze below:
More than thirty years ago, a hyper-dimensional passageway suddenly appeared over the continent of Antarctica. Fighters from the mysterious alien force known as the JAM poured through the passage, the first wave an attempted terrestrial invasion. Their ferocity was unquestionable, their aim unknown. Humanity, united by a common enemy, managed to repel the invaders, chasing them back through the passageway to the strange planet nicknamed “Fairy.”
The task of finishing the battle was given to the newly formed FAF, a combat force created to go to Fairy and eliminate the JAM bases once and for all. Now, in the midst of a war with no end in sight, Second Lieutenant Rei Fukai carries out his missions in the skies over Fairy. Attached to Tactical Combat and Surveillance Unit 3 of the Special Air Force, his duty is to gather information on the enemy and bring it back to base—no matter the human cost. His only constant companion in this lonely task is his fighter plane, the sentient FFR-31 Super Sylph, call sign: Yukikaze. [Amazon]