Domhnall Gleeson in talks to star in crime thriller with Tom Cruise

The film is called Mena and follows Barry Seal, a Trans World Airways (TWA) pilot recruited by the CIA to provide recon on the burgeoning communist threat in Central America.

Seal finds himself in charge of one of the biggest covert CIA operations in the history of the US, one that spawned the birth of the Medellin cartel and eventually almost brought down the Reagan White House through the Iran Contra scandal.

If the deal does close, it is not known what role the Malahide native is in talks to play in the film directed by Doug Liman.

The title refers to Mena in Arkansas, which is the centre of Barry's story.

With both The Revenant, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and the new Star Wars instalment both due out in December, the critics are all touting this to be Domhnall's year.

However, Gleeson is still humble about his success, revealing that he doesn't "pinch himself" when he thinks about what he has achieved.

He has also been garnering rave reviews for his role in sci-fi thriller Ex-Machina, in which he stars opposite Alicia Vikander.

"Everything seems very slow to you when it's happening. I mean I've been the lead in three films, maybe four, and I've been acting since I was 19 years old. I'm 31 now," he said.

"When you pinch yourself is when you hear that somebody wants to work with you or somebody likes something you did, or that you audition and you get something with people who you just are excited about. That's when you pinch yourself."