Tom Cruise in talks to star in All You Need Is Kill (which has a new title)

Back when it became a hot spec script, ALL YOU NEED IS KILL was a story that followed a young soldier in a futuristic war who, not unlike GROUNDHOG DAY, keeps reliving the same brutal battle over and over. But as Warner Bros. struggled to get the film off the ground, the hot spec script underwent some rewrites and the young soldier was rewritten as an older officer. Enter: Tom Cruise.

Last week, Brad Pitt was the hot rumor but now THR reports that Cruise is in talks to star in the film for director Doug Liman. And what’s more, the film has now been retitled WE MORTALS ARE. (I won’t make the obvious and mean joke about that title, Tom Cruise and dyslexia.)

But Cruise is a notoriously picky actor to lock down and he’s unusually busy at the moment. The normally choosy Cruise is currently committed to two projects: ONE SHOT, now filming for director Christopher McQuarrie, and OBLIVION, Joe Kosinski’s follow-up to TRON: LEGACY that will shoot in mid-2012 for Universal. So even if Cruise is available and interested, is WB okay with waiting over a year to get filming underway?

The other question to be asked is just how in-depth these “talks” are. As mentioned earlier, WB was also gauging the interest of Brad Pitt. Is the studio simply sending out feelers to all A-list talent to see who they can get to anchor the project? Can an offer to Leonardo DiCaprio be far behind?