EDGE OF TOMORROW Director Doug Liman Loves His Sequel Idea "Way More Than The Story Of The Original Film"
Edge of Tomorrow was one of 2014's most welcome surprises, and it sounds like director Doug Liman is even more excited about the upcoming sequel, which will return both Tom Cruise & Emily Blunt. Check it!
While on the press tour for his latest directorial venture, the critically-acclaimed American Made, director Doug Liman sat down with Yahoo! Movies and shared a few interesting tidbits about Live Die Repeat and Repeat, which is the tentative title for the highly anticipated sequel to his 2014 sleeper hit, Edge of Tomorrow, which starred 3x Academy Award-nominated superstar Tom Cruise and Golden Globe-winner Emily Blunt in the lead roles.
Liman explains that the sequel's currently unofficial title originates from his intended title for the first film: Live Die Repeat. Unfortunately, at that time, the studio didn't exactly see eye-to-eye with his vision and opted for the safer and studio-friendly Edge of Tomorrow, “That was an epic war between me and Warner Bros. that I lost.” However, as fate would have it, Liman did ultimately get the last laugh as after the film's blockbuster success, the studio decided to essentially rebrand the film on home video, releasing it on Blu-ray/DVD with a much larger emphasis on the film's "Live. Die. Repeat." tagline rather than the film's actual title, which was relegated to the bottom of the cover.
Throughout his illustrious career, Liman has never returned for a sequel and he admits to being apprehensive about returning for this one as well, but it looks like Cruise's rough story idea - combined with unbelieveable fan support - really got his wheels turning. “Normally there are financial decisions behind making a sequel, but with this, it was just about us coming up with a story. Really, it’s not a world I was eager to go back to, because dealing with time travel can make your head hurt. But there was so much affection from fans of the movie — more than any of my other movies! — that Tom and I felt that we owed it to ourselves to at least think about what a sequel could be.”
As for where the film picks up, Liman teases that it will go back a little further than we might have expected. "It picks up where the last one left off, but then we go backwards in time. I love it way more than the story of the original film." To recap, the first film ended with Major Cage destroying the Omega and returning back to the beginning when he was arriving in Trafalgar Square. He then paid a confused Rita Vrataski a visit before the film cut to credits. Now, if the sequel plans to go back even further than that moment, then we could be in for quite the treat as we'll more likely than not get a chance to revisit the original, cowardly, opportunistic Bill Cage as well as possibly get to see Rita Vrataski earn her name as "The Angel of Verdun." Liman teases, "I like antiheroes. Pretty much all of my films are about antiheroes, including American Made.”
So, what do you guys think? Sound off with your thoughts below!