Entertainment Weekly has confirmed that Tom Cruise will star in the sci-fi film “Oblivion”. The film will be directed by Joseph Kosinski (“Tron: Legacy”). News of the casting first appeared in Deadline.

Kosinski created the story and developed it into a graphic novel with writer Arvid Nelson and illustrator Andree Wallin. The graphic novel will be released later this year in order to hype up the film and establish the movie’s story to the public.

The film is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth that is so inhospitable for humans that all humankind has taken to living above the clouds. Cruise will play a soldier whose mission is to live on the ground, repairing the probes and drones that search out and destroy remnants of a barbaric alien race. He finds a woman who crash-landed on the planet; this meeting will change the course of the soldier’s life.

Kosinski has said that he feels his film will be “a very spare science fiction film with a small cast but big ideas and big landscapes.”

“Oblivion” is set to start shooting in October, with a budget of $100 million.

Cruise will also be seen in the film adaptation of “Rock of Ages”, which is currently in production.