Tom Cruise may be busy gearing up to work on back-to-back MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE sequels, an endeavor that is certain to take up a lot of his time over the next couple years, but EDGE OF TOMORROW director Doug Liman isn't giving up hope that Cruise will eventually be able to clear his schedule to work on a sequel to that 2014 film.
Liman has been talking up EDGE OF TOMORROW 2 (or, as he calls it, LIVE DIE REPEAT AND REPEAT) for a few years now, saying he wants it to be a smaller film than its predecessor so he can really focus on Bill Cage and Rita Vrataski, the characters played by Cruise and Emily Blunt. Matthew Robinson was hired to work on the screenplay last March, taking over from Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, and since then Liman was quoted as saying the script is complete.
Yesterday, Liman took to his Instagram account to share a glimpse into the writing process, posting a picture that shows Robinson and producer Alison Winter in a room full of whiteboards that have EDGE OF TOMORROW 2 / LIVE DIE REPEAT AND REPEAT story scribbles all over them. Of course, the only words that can be clearly seen on the boards are Cage and Rita.
The first EDGE OF TOMORROW was set in
a near future in which an alien race has hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, unbeatable by any military unit in the world. Lt. Col. Bill Cage is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously dropped into what amounts to a suicide mission. Killed within minutes, Cage now finds himself inexplicably thrown into a time loop — forcing him to live out the same brutal combat over and over, fighting and dying again… and again.
But with each battle, Cage becomes able to engage the adversaries with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski. And, as Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated encounter gets them one step closer to defeating the enemy.
The film was based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka's manga All You Need Is Kill.
It may be a while before we see this sequel, but it's good to know that Liman is dedicated to making it happen.