Tom Cruise is wasting no time as he heads into the next phase of his career, cashing in on all the action roles he can get his hands on of late. He just finished JACK REACHER and Joseph Kosinski’s OBLIVION with a take on VAN HELSING, another turn as Maverick in TOP GUN 2, a return to the spy world with a fifth MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, and a remake of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN all sitting in the queue. Now, the enigmatic actor is reporting on set for director Doug Liman’s ALL YOU NEED IS KILL, which begins production today, and we have an updated, in-depth synopsis and credits to get you warmed up.
Here it is:
The story unfolds in a near future in which a hive-like alien race, called Mimics, have hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, shredding great cities to rubble and leaving millions of human casualties in their wake. No army in the world can match the speed, brutality or seeming prescience of the weaponized Mimic fighters or their telepathic commanders. But now the world’s armies have joined forces for a last stand offensive against the alien horde, with no second chances.
Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and then dropped—untrained and ill-equipped—into what amounts to little more than a suicide mission. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an Alpha down with him. But, impossibly, he awakens back at the beginning of the same hellish day, and is forced to fight and die again…and again. Direct physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop—dooming him to live out the same brutal combat over and over.
But with each pass, Cage becomes tougher, smarter, and able to engage the Mimics with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt), who has lain waste to more Mimics than anyone on Earth. As Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated battle becomes an opportunity to find the key to annihilating the alien invaders and saving the Earth.
Oscar® nominee Cruise (the “Mission: Impossible” films, “Collateral,” “Jerry Maguire”) and Blunt (“The Devil Wears Prada,” “The Adjustment Bureau”) lead an international cast that also includes Bill Paxton (“Aliens,” HBO’s “Big Love”), Jonas Armstrong (BBC TV’s “Robin Hood”), Tony Way (HBO’s “Game of Thrones”), Kick Gurry (Australian TV’s “Tangle”), Franz Drameh (“Attack the Block”), Dragomir Mrsic (“Snabba Cash II”), and Charlotte Riley (“World Without End”).
Liman (“The Bourne Identity,” “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”) is directing the film from a screenplay by Dante Harper, Christopher McQuarrie and Joby Harold, based on the acclaimed novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Erwin Stoff (“The Blind Side,” “I Am Legend”), Gregory Jacobs (“Contagion”) and Jeffrey Silver (“300”) are the producers. The executive producers are Jason Hoffs, Joby Harold, Doug Liman, Dave Bartis, Tom Lassally, Hidemi [frick]uhara, Thomas Tull, Jon Jashni, Alex Garcia and Bruce Berman, with Tim Lewis and Kim Winther serving as co-producers. (Credits are not final.)
The behind-the-scenes team includes Academy Award®-winning director of photography Dion Beebe (“Memoirs of a Geisha”), production designer Oliver Scholl (“Jumper,” “Independence Day”), editor James Herbert (“Sherlock Holmes,” “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows”), costume designer Kate Hawley (upcoming “Pacific Rim”), and Oscar®-nominated visual effects supervisor Nick Davis (“The Dark Knight”).
I haven’t read the book, but this sci-fi action version of GROUNDHOG DAY actually sounds pretty bad ass. With Liman at the helm, I’m hoping for a an action-heavy opus along the lines of MR. AND MRS. SMITH, but with a heavy dose of sci-fi. Whatever the case, this announcement now has me officially excited to see how this turns out. You can get your Cruise fix next with JACK REACHER on December 21, 2012.
ALL YOU NEED IS KILL is slated to open on March 14, 2014.