There have been a few underrated blockbusters over the last few years but perhaps none have had the critical and audience response to them quite like Edge of Tomorrow. The 2014 action sci-fi extravaganza, directed by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity) and starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, wasn’t a huge success when it first came out (grossing $370million from a $178million budget) but was a firm favourite of many.
It’s Groundhog Day-esque premise, which saw Cruise’s Maj. William Cage thrown into a war with seemingly impenetrable aliens, only to relive the same brutal battle over and over again – dying pretty much every time due to a strange time loop. His only hope of survival stands with Emily Blunt’s Rita Vrataski, who trains him to become a more effective killer and to help him stay alive.
The film had a great premise, great visual and a compelling, thrilling story and despite the somewhat lacklustre box office, has found a second life and now director Liman has confirmed that a sequel is on the way. Speaking to Collider, the director said that everyone will back (including screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie) for the follow-up and while there is no release date yet, it has the greenlight, saying:
“We have an amazing story! It’s incredible! Way better than the first film, and I obviously loved the first film. It will be called Live Die Repeat and Repeat. Tom [Cruise] is excited about it, and Emily Blunt is excited about it. The big question is just when we’ll do it. But it’s not an if, it’s a when.”
“I’ve had some radical ideas about how to make a sequel that would interest me, in the same way that I had ideas of how you make an independent film and then Swingers came along and it was like ‘Aha, that’s the perfect movie for me to test these ideas out on.’ I had these intellectual ideas on how you should make a sequel that are unlike how anybody else makes a sequel, and this script and this idea fit perfectly into that idea. So it’s gonna revolutionize how people make sequels. And again that’s why I try to do things like Invisible that are just, the revolution’s sort of built into the idea. It’s more heresy in the film world for me to pitch things that are sort of unheard of.”
When we might see the sequel is up for debate, with both Cruise and Blunt extremely busy these days with many different projects, but if they can find the time then we would be delighted.
Liman’s new film, The Wall, opens in the US at the end of this month with a UK release date still to be confirmed.
