Edge of Tomorrow 2 is moving forward again, this time with Matthew Robinson (The Invention of Lying) writing a new screenplay. Doug Liman, who directed the first movie, is overseeing the script’s development and will return to helm the followup, should be it green-lit.
Loosely based on Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel All You Need Is Kill, Edge of Tomorrow starred Tom Cruise as Maj. William Cage, a public relations officer with no combat experience who’s forced to join the war against an invading alien force because of his insubordinate behavior. On the battlefield, Cage is killed after being dissolved by one of the aliens’ blood and wakes up to find himself caught in a time loop, living the day before the big battle over and over again. He is eventually mentored by Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), a hard as nails soldier who also gained the ability to reset the day from the aliens, before she lost it.
While Edge of Tomorrow was a modest commercial success (making $370 million worldwide on a $178 million budget), it was well-received by critics and audiences alike, and the film’s cast/crew have expressed interest in making a sequel ever since. The project has been slow to develop, but Deadline says Edge of Tomorrow 2 is moving forward once again, this time based on a pitch that Robinson came up with and will turn into a screenplay.
Writers Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse (Race) wrote an earlier script draft for Edge of Tomorrow 2, but their screenplay failed to secure a green-light and is no longer being used, by the sound of it. The plan is for Cruise and Blunt to reprise their Edge of Tomorrow roles in the sequel, with the former’s trusted collaborator Christopher McQuarrie (who co-wrote the original movie) assisting in some fashion, either as a co-writer and/or a producer. McQuarrie previously said that Shrapnel and Waterhouse’s script helped to better explain the first film’s somewhat confusing ending, but it remains to be seen if the new script draft follows suit.
Scheduling may be the big obstacle that Edge of Tomorrow 2 is facing at this point. Blunt is preparing to film A Quiet Place 2 later this year, while Liman is finishing reshoots and post-production on his YA adaptation Chaos Walking. Cruise, meanwhile, is currently filming Top Gun: Maverick and has committed to shooting Mission: Impossible sequels back-to-back with McQuarrie shortly after that. Trying to find a time when everyone is available to get back together will be tricky, to put it mildly.
Still, Cruise, Blunt, Liman, and McQuarrie all seem pretty passionate about finding a way to make Edge of Tomorrow 2 work, one way or another. So long as they can settle on a script that they all think is worthwhile, then we’re game too.
MORE: Everything We Know About Edge of Tomorrow 2
Source: Deadline
