The Sherlock Holmes star is negotiating a deal for the 3-D space movie directed by Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban's Alfonso Cuaron, Deadline New York reports.

Cuaron wrote the script with his son, Jonas, about a team of astronauts posted to a remote space station, only to be decimated by debris from an exploded satellite, leaving the leading officer and a female colleague, who were travelling outside the space station as the only survivors.

Downey was reportedly drawn to the chance to work with Cuaron, the director of Children Of Men and Y Tu Mama Tambien, and will shoot the film in London this summer, finishing in time to re-team with director Guy Ritchie and Jude Law in the Sherlock Holmes sequel in early autumn, also in London.

Warner Bros and Legendary Pictures will co-finance the project.

The script was originally developed at Universal with the intention of having Angelina Jolie play the female role. Much of the film is devoted to her struggle to get back to Earth and her daughter.

Angelina is no longer attached to the project.