Universal wants Tom Cruise for the reboot of The Mummy.
Sources say Universal has been looking for a big star to anchor the film, and is hoping Cruise would fill that role.
The film will be set in modern day and is set for release on March 24, 2017.
Jon Spaihts wrote the script although plot details are being kept deep in the tomb.
It will be the first film in a series of interconnected monster films as Universal hopes to build a cinematic universe out of its vault of classic creature features.
Cruise was planning on reuniting with Doug Liman, for whom he recently wrapped 1980s drug movie Mena, for Luna Park but when Liman took on Fox's Gambit, it left a space in his schedule for Mummy.
After shooting The Mummy in mid- Februar, Cruise will head back to the Mission: Impossible franchise for the sixth installment, which will shoot in later 2016.
