Tag: Doug Liman

Posted on in Film News, News

Tom Cruise Strikes New Deal To Develop, Produce & Star In Future Warner Bros. Movies

While Tom Crusie is busy trying to complete “Mission: Impossible 8” at Paramount Pictures with writer/director Christopher McQuarrie (“Jack Reacher”) and is reuniting with director Doug Liman (“Edge of Tomorrow”) for a space film at Universal Pictures that will see the iconic action star shoot scenes at the International Space Station, he’s aiming to make a big return to Warner Bros. as well.

Cruise has struck a deal with movie studio chiefs Michael De Luca and Pamela Abdy to develop, produce, and star in new films for Warner Bros. as revealed by The Hollywood Reporter, and it won’t be a traditional first-look deal. This comes after Cruise had a billion-dollar success with the long-gestating sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” and a less-than-stellar box office return on “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1” making it one of the bigger disappointments of 2023.

The actor hasn’t made a film with Warners in a decade and should help nudge the studio to make a big commitment to the theatrical release given the actor isn’t terribly keen on streaming while championing theatrical windows as well.

Some of the previous films Cruise has made at WB include “The Last Samurai,” Stanley Kurbick’s final film “Eyes Wide Shut,” “Magnolia,” and “Edge of Tomorrow.” There had been plans to move forward with a sequel to “Edge of Tomorrow” for years, and the new deal might help push things towards production as Liman has been attached to direct for years but scheduling has seemingly been the main issue there with Cruise laser-focused on Paramount projects. Cruise’s new deal would make it a lot easier to get “Edge of Tomorrow 2” made.

One of the other films Cruise is hoping to make is a Les Grossman spinoff, reprising his crass studio executive character from Ben Stiller’s “Tropic Thunder” at Paramount/DreamWorks.

Fans have automatically assumed that Cruise could end up playing Hal Jordan in a “Green Lantern” movie at DC Studios, but nothing in the report has suggested this is even on the table. However, that potentially could happen if all the stars align and James Gunn/Peter Safran made an impressive pitch to the star.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News, News

‘The Saint’: Regé-Jean Page Replaces Chris Pine For Paramount’s Spy Reboot From Director Doug Liman

There has been a long-gestating remake of “The Saint” in the works at Paramount Pictures that previous had a popular TV series from the 1960s and a lesser-known feature film remake starring Val Kilmer (“Heat”) and helmed by Phillip Noyce (“Clear & Present Danger”) that released back in 1997. A new report from Deadline has revealed things are up and running again with Doug Liman (“Bourne Identity”) set to direct and actor Regé-Jean Page enlisted for the role of Simon Templar. A master of disguise, not that dissimilar to Ethan Hunt, who uses the names of Roman Catholic saints as his aliases while on various impossible missions.

The British actor will be replacing his “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” co-star Chris Pine (“Star Trek”), who had originally been attached to the remake back when Dexter Fletcher (“Eddie The Eagle”) was set to direct. Pine had previously attempted to restart the Jack Ryan film franchise for Paramount before his installment was unsuccessful and eventually the studio selected John Krasinski to lead the Amazon Prime series. So, Pine’s hiring was always a bit bizarre after their experience on “Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.”

Page has recently dabbled in the spy genre playing a heel in The Russo Brothers’ Netflix action pic “The Gray Man,” but didn’t really get a chance to do much action in that one in comparison to the other actors in it.

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It’s maybe worth mentioning that Roger Moore, the original actor from the ’60s TV series would eventually take over the James Bond role in the early 1970s after Richard Lazenby decided not to return for more installments. Page (35) has been long considered by UK tabloids as a strong contender to become the next 007, although, EON/MGM have yet to announce who they’ll actually cast other than a desire to hire an actor in their 30s.

Here is the official synopsis for the 1997 incarnation:

Based on the popular spy series, this film follows suave international thief Simon Templar (Val Kilmer), who is contracted by Russian oil magnate Ivan Tretiak (Rade Serbedzija) to steal a formula for cold fusion. So Templar, nicknamed “The Saint” because of his use of Roman Catholic saints as aliases, finds scientist Dr. Emma Russell (Elisabeth Shue), seduces her, and steals the information. However, because the formula was incomplete, Tretiak now wants to kill Templar and kidnap Russell.

Like “Mission: Impossible,” “The Saint” has an earworm of a theme song that got reworked by Orbital for the 1997 film.

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Emily Blunt Says Budget & Scheduling Are Still Roadblocks To Getting ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’ Made – Despite An “Amazing” Script

A Quiet Place Part II is finally going to be released and actress Emily Blunt is doing the press tour to promote the horror flick directed by her hubby John Krasinski. One project that has been long in development is the sequel to the sci-fi action film Edge of Tomorrow with Blunt, Tom Cruise, and director Doug Liman attached to return once everything aligns.

However, it doesn’t sound from Emily Blunt’s recent comments that Edge of Tomorrow 2 is anywhere closer to getting made. Emily reiterated to The Howard Stern Show that the film’s budget might be too expensive for Warner Bros. alongside scheduling issues could be the real hold-up, not their desire to do it.

BLUNT: “We wanted to [make it]. Honestly, I think the movie’s too expensive. Yeah, I don’t know how we’re going to do it. I think that it’s hard to align everyone’s schedules. I would love it. Doug Liman would love it. Tom would love it. We’d all love to do it, but I think until we figure out what’s going on with the industry – honestly, I think we need to figure out what is the next road map for the kinds of films that people want to make.”

Blunt also telling Entertainment Weekly that the script is “amazing” but isn’t sure if it’ll get made or not, which might suggest that the script isn’t an issue unless it’s adding an extra hurdle to the budget.

Tom Cruise is going to be busy for the foreseeable future with Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible 8 still set to shoot after production delays caused by scheduling issues and the pandemic. He’s also attached to the $200 million budgeted action film from director Doug Liman that was picked-up by Universal Pictures. Emily Blunt is demand as well making things even more of a headache.

Warner Bros. still hasn’t given Edge of Tomorrow 2 a release date and it’ll be a miracle if it’s ever made at all.

SOURCE: ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY & THE HOWARD STERN SHOW

Posted on in Television News

‘Solo’ Co-Stars Donald Glover & Phoebe Waller-Bridge Reuniting For A ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ Series Coming To Amazon In 2022

Yesterday, it was announced by Amazon Studios that Donald Glover would be reuniting with Phoebe Waller-Bridge for a series remake of the action-comedy Mr. & Mrs. Smith, the Doug Liman-directed flick that starred Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

Phoebe and Donald previously worked together on the Lucasfilm prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The new series from co-creator and showrunner Francesca Sloane is expected to debut on Amazon Prime Video in 2022.

MR. & MRS. SMITH – John (Brad Pitt) and Jane Smith (Angelina Jolie), a couple in a stagnating marriage, live a deceptively mundane existence. However, each has been hiding a secret from the other: they are assassins working for adversarial agencies. When they are both assigned to kill the same target, Benjamin Danz (Adam Brody), the truth comes to the surface. Finally free from their cover stories, they discover that they have been assigned to kill each other, sparking a series of explosive attacks.

SOURCE: AMAZON

Posted on in Film News

Doug Liman Gives Updates On ‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’ & His Untitled Space Movie Starring Tom Cruise

We’ve been patiently waiting on news about the sequel to the sci-fi action flick Edge of Tomorrow that stared Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.

While promoting his new film Lockdown, shot during the pandemic, director Doug Liman explained that without the the pair of actors officially signing on the film can’t move forward.

LIMAN: “I’ve always been interested in the idea of a sequel being more character-driven than the first film, because that’s not how things are normally done. That’s been my approach when developing the sequel and because Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are such phenomenal actors. I get sometimes the sequel just has to have more firepower or more explosions but no visual effect is going to top what you’re going to get from a great scene performed by Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt.”

“It’s one of these things where if Tom, Emily and I were to say, ‘we’re ready to pull the trigger on this script,’ it’s Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt, the film gets made. That’s pretty much how Hollywood works. The stars are the gatekeepers. If you can get Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt to commit to the movie, it’s going to happen.“

Emily Blunt has previously said she’s game but it all comes down to scheduling, the actors have to agree to a script and the production stated before anything seems to be going forward.

The filmmaker also talked to Collider about where they are concerning the untitled movie that will star Tom Cruise and will shoot sequences in space thanks to SpaceX.

LIMAN: “From the first conversations that we’ve had about the film… how you insure it has been a central part of the conversations. So, we wouldn’t be talking about this movie if we hadn’t figured out a way to navigate the insurance component. So we have navigated it, but there would not have been a conversation about this movie without figuring out the insurance… it’s the same thing in Locked Down, one of the first conversations was about insurance, because of the pandemic… You can’t make a movie without having an insurance conversation. And [whether] you’re talking about going to outer space, [or] you’re talking about shooting in London in the heart of the pandemic, you know, insurance is gonna dictate whether that actually is possible.”

“I’m not sure any of us really know what 2021 is gonna look like yet, because of the pandemic. I have something I’m working on that I’m hoping I can shoot. But I don’t think anyone can know 100% right now.”

Things are even more certain during the pandemic but I’m sure studios will eventually want to secure Tom Cruise’s schedule before other things come up.

SOURCE: COLLIDER

Posted on in Film News

‘Edge of Tomorrow 2’: Emily Blunt Calls Script “Really Promising” and Reiterates That Schedules Need To Align

Warner Bros. and director Doug Liman have been trying to put together a sequel to the Tom Cruise sci-fi action film Edge of Tomorrow that co-starred Emily Blunt. The original film focuses on cowardly military officer that focuses mainly on PR for the war between an invading force of aliens. His big mouth leads to him being stripped of his rank and thrown into the meat-grinder with the rest of the grunts leading to his death, however, he is covered in alien blood that allows him to relive the same day over and over (similar to Groundhog Dog). Until he runs into another soldier that previously had the same ability and they work together to finally put a stop to the alien horde that leads to her training him into a soldier tough enough to survive the battlefield and stop the aliens from conquering Earth.

A script for Edge of Tomorrow has been kicking around for a while now but the busy schedules of both Tom and Emily has been a huge issue. While recently speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, Blunt revealed that the script is “really promising” but the as previously pointed out multiple times that scheduling has been a huge headache to getting production started on the sequel.

BLUNT: “Yes, [the script] is really promising and really, really cool. I just don’t know when everything’s going to sort of align, you know what I mean? Between all of our schedules, it would just have to be the right time. But there is something in the works, for sure, that’s a great idea. A great idea.”

Tom Cruise is really busy completing Mission: Impossible 7, Mission: Impossible 8, and a new film with Doug Liman that will be shot in space for Universal Pictures budgeted at over $200 million. Liman had also been preoccupied with finishing the Lionsgate sci-fi film Chaos Walking starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley.

EDGE OF TOMORROW – When Earth falls under attack from invincible aliens, no military unit in the world is able to beat them. Maj. William Cage (Tom Cruise), an officer who has never seen combat, is assigned to a suicide mission. Killed within moments, Cage finds himself thrown into a time loop, in which he relives the same brutal fight — and his death — over and over again. However, Cage’s fighting skills improve with each encore, bringing him and a comrade (Emily Blunt) ever closer to defeating the aliens.

SOURCE: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Posted on in Film News

Watch First Look Trailer For Sci-Fi Flick ‘Chaos Walking’ Starring Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland – Directed By ‘Edge of Tomorrow’s Doug Liman

Lionsgate has finally dropped the first trailer for Doug Liman’s long-delayed science fiction film Chaos Walking which stars Spider-Man actor Tom Holland and Star Wars actress Daisy Ridley. The project has been having trouble finding a release date and the studio seems to want to keep it TBA in 2021 for the time being.

The trailer showcases the film’s interesting mix of science fiction like Oblivion meets a post-apocalypse western like The Last of Us, certainly looks to be action-packed alongside some choice visuals.

Liman is best known for the Tom Cruise film Edge of Tomorrow.

CHAOS WALKING – In the not too distant future, Todd Hewitt (Tom Holland) discovers Viola (Daisy Ridley), a mysterious girl who crash lands on his planet, where all the women have disappeared and the men are afflicted by “the Noise” – a force that puts all their thoughts on display. In this dangerous landscape, Viola’s life is threatened – and as Todd vows to protect her, he will have to discover his own inner power and unlock the planet’s dark secrets. From the director of The Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow and based on the best-selling novel The Knife of Never Letting Go, Daisy Ridley and Tom Holland star with Mads Mikkelsen, Demián Bichir, Cynthia Erivo, Nick Jonas, Kurt Sutter, and David Oyelowo in Chaos Walking.

SOURCE: LIONSGATE

Posted on in Film News

Anne Hathaway To Lead Doug Liman’s Pandemic Heist Flick ‘Lockdown’ – Penned By ‘Eastern Promises’ Screenwriter Steven Knight

It was recently reported by Deadline that Oscar-winner Anne Hathaway is in final talks to take a lead role in director Doug Liman’s next film a pandemic-themed heist movie titled Lockdown. Hathaway recently did the heist film Ocean’s 8 and played thief Selina Kyle aka Catwoman in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises. 

The new film is referred to as a romantic comedy and was written by screenwriter Steven Knight, who is known for Eastern Promises, Locke, Peaky Blinders, Taboo, Allied, and The Girl In The Spider’s Web. 

They also mention that filming could begin before the end of the month in London with a budget of under $10 million. 

Director Doug Liman has been busy with the feature film adaptation of Chaos Walking starring Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, which had undergone extensive reshoots. He is also planning on shooting an action-pic in space starring Tom Cruise and had been developing a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow. 

SOURCE: DEADLINE

Posted on in Film News

Tom Cruise/Doug Liman Movie Filming In Space May Land At Universal – Could Cost $200M+ To Make

Variety is reporting that Universal Pictures is currently in negotiations to distribute the untitled science fiction action film from director Doug Liman (American Made, Edge of Tomorrow) and starring Tom Cruise, the eye-grabbing gimmick of the film is that it will be shot in space something that really hasn’t been done with a studio blockbuster.

They mention that the budget could be over $200 million which is expected given that the costs involved with shooting in space, something that really hasn’t been undertaken when it comes to a narrative studio feature film. Cruise himself could end up earning something in the range of $30-60 million.

Details about the movie are scarce but it’s a given that it will be in the science fiction genre and we likely won’t get an official synopsis until an official deal is done.

Tom and Doug had also been trying to made a sequel to Edge of Tomorrow, but it doesn’t seem that will be happening anytime soon despite Liman’s optimistic statements made last year. Cruise is expected to resume filming on Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 for Paramount Pictures soon in the United Kingdom.

When they plan on shooting the untitled project is currently a mystery.

SOURCE: VARIETY