Report: Tom Cruise to Hook Up with Cronenberg

The avant-garde director who became known for out-there cult classics like "Scanners," "The Dead Zone" and "The Fly" and more recently reached a wider audience now plans to go completely mainstream with a big-budget Hollywood movie.

Cronenberg is writing a screenplay based on the book "The Matarese Circle" by the late Robert Ludlum, author of more than two dozen thrillers including "The Bourne Identity," which spawned a film franchise.

The 1979 book was written during the Cold War and tells the story of an American CIA agent and a Russian operative who collaborate against a third force that threatens both nations.

Cronenberg is working on updating the story and said he's excited about giving it the Hollywood treatment.

"I'm really liking the challenge of doing a kind of big-budget studio spy movie," he said.

"I was developing my taste for it with the last two movies I did, 'A History of Violence' and 'Eastern Promises,' and this opportunity came along and I thought I would give it a try."

So far the only star attached to the project is Denzel Washington, but Cronenberg coyly hinted that another big-name actor he recently met with might show some interest in the movie.

"You never know," Cronenberg said with a laugh when asked about his meeting with Tom Cruise in Toronto.

"I've heard over the years that he's a big fan of mine, and since he was in town his people got in touch with me and wondered if I could meet with him. So we were just talking about general stuff, not anything specific," he said.

"But he has expressed a desire to work with me and I have reciprocated - so you never know."

Cronenberg spent time this year in Paris and Los Angeles overseeing the transformation of his film "The Fly" into an opera, with the help of composer Howard Shore and tenor Placido Domingo.