200808191023§ Tom Cruise and Sam Raimi have bonded over SLEEPER, the Ed Brubaker/Sean Phillips miniseries. Cruise is “loosely” attached to star, Raimi would produce with Josh Donen.

Written by Ed Brubaker with art by Sean Phillips, “Sleeper,” which ran from 2003-05, 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.


Although the movie is seen as a “franchise” (aren’t they always?), there is a big rights tangle that must be unraveled:

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 and Donen have long been fans of the book, and the project could have found homes at Sony and Regency if those issues hadn’t been so complex. “Sleeper” is a spin-off book from Wildstorm flagship title “WildC.A.T.s” and features characters from another spin-off book, “Gen 13.” Both books had been set up at different places around town and some of those deals were made before DC bought the imprint in 1999.


Hint to Cruise: Do CRIMINAL instead! It comes under the Kirkman Principle.
§ Meanwhile, Mandalay has “nabbed” rights to JULIUS by Antony Johnston and Brett Weldele, out from IP farm Oni.

F. Gary Gray is attached to direct.

Written by Antony Johnston and illustrated by Brett Weldele, “Julius” is a contempo urban crime adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar.”

Mandalay prexy Cathy Schulman said that Gray “has a vision for this adaptation that will satirize obsessive consumerism while providing a thrilling ride for audiences.”


“Thrilling ride…” Hrm, hrm…

10 COMMENTS

  1. Just FYI – They got some details wrong, Sleeper is not a spin-off of anything, but it does have a few characters from the WS universe, including two from Wildcats and Gen 13. But Sleeper was not a spin-off property. It was seeded in Point Blank, which starred the entire WS U, but Sleeper was already greenlit by then, and Point Blank was actually altered at the script stage so as to seed Sleeper.

  2. Sleeper is such a fantastic read! Month in and month out, each issue was perfect. Does this news mean that my back issues will actually be worth something? Interesting that the trades are more valuable than the singles on eBay. I like Bru on loner character books; wish he would do Punisher. It would be perfect.

  3. Wasn’t Tao originally created by Alan Moore? I would suggest Ed remove him from the script just to avoid the Alan Moore movie curse.

  4. “Even if Cruise opts not to do “Sleeper,” his interest in the project is propelling it forward…”

    Also, I can kill you with my brain. — Tom Cruise

  5. Not big on Cruise getting involved, especially with some of the bad buzz around Valkyrie. Yet I love Sleeper enough to accept it if it gets a good Sleeper movie made. Amazing news.

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