Taking a well-earned break from his Californicating, David Duchovny will spend the hiatus trapped underwater with Ed Harris and William Fichtner, when he joins the indie thriller Phantom.

Set on a Soviet submarine during the Cold War, Phantom sees a Russian captain contending both with a rogue KGB unit and a supernatural force that's trying to take over the vessel. Harris is the captain, and Duchovny will replace Andy Garcia as the leader of a Soviet special forces team on a secret mission.

Hopefully Phantom will dispense with silly accents and go the Hunt For Red October route of allowing everyone to speak as they normally would, on the understanding that they're really speaking in Russian. What's good for Sean Connery is good for everyone else.

Todd Robinson is the writer and director (he also wrote Ridley Scott's White Squall and directed Lonely Hearts), and the cast also includes Natasha McElhone. Shooting starts in Long Beach, California next month.