Doug Liman

Doug Liman’s Edge of Tomorrow sequel, maddeningly titled Live Die Repeat and Repeat (as a reference to the first movie’s “Live. Die. Repeat.” tagline), is probably going to be even more mind-bendingly weird than its predecessor. While talking about it recently, Liman revealed that the movie is “a sequel that’s a prequel,” whatever that means, and it’ll also have a fun new characters that’s going to “steal the movie.”

Looks like it’s back to the drawing board for Justice League Dark, as the movie has just lost its director. Doug Liman was set to direct the superhero movie which will launch DC’s Dark Universe, and was also excited about the level of freedom he’d get from Warner Bros., but ultimately he had to step down as director due to that all-powerful scourge of Hollywood: the scheduling conflict.

Fox’s Gambit movie seems perpetually stuck in development hell, occasionally offering hope in fits and starts as directors and actors sign on and then leave for greener pastures before production ever gets underway. Channing Tatum is still on board, but the film, once again lacks a director. Doug Liman, who took over the project for some time after Rupert Wyatt left, recently explained exactly why he decided Gambit wasn’t for him.

While Doug Liman may be hard at work promoting his upcoming war thriller The Wall, that doesn’t mean he’s forgotten about an Edge of Tomorrow sequel. Last October, Liman promised that the movie was still moving forward, with the director even going so far as to suggest that the second film would “revolutionize” how people thought about movie sequels. And now Liman has dropped a few exciting updates, including a new title for the film and the promise of returning stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. The short version? It’s happening, dopey name or not.

Doug Liman is kind of a beast. Before the Edge of Tomorrow director’s next Tom Cruise project, American Made (formerly titled Mena), hits theaters, we’re getting another Liman action flick: The Wall. The first official trailer for one of two new Liman films arriving in 2017 has debuted online, giving us a sneak peak at a fairly simple dramatic thriller concept about two soldiers, a sniper and one very deadly standoff.

This is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a Marvel and Star Wars crossover: Tom Holland, aka your new Spider-Man, is in talks to join Daisy Ridley, aka Rey, in Chaos Walking — the upcoming post-apocalyptic thriller based on the best-selling YA novel by Patrick Ness. In related news, maybe the real post-apocalyptic future is one in which all teen movie franchises are based on post-apocalyptic YA books; time is a flat circle and the apocalypse has already happened and we are all already dead. Happy Monday!

After Guillermo del Toro’s exit from the Dark Universe movie, fans despaired that Warner Bros. would never find another director as cool and weird as he would be. But in stepped Bourne Identity and Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, who seems to be all set to make this Justice League Dark adaptation as weird as he possibly can.

In a world dominated by superhero franchise juggernauts and book adaptations and reboot after reboot after reboot after reboot, original concepts for science fiction movies are few and far between. Which is weird, because these movies tend to be extremely good (here’s looking at you, Oblivion, Looper, Moon, etc.) but they also tend not to do as well as they should at the box office, probably because they don’t have recognizable costumed heroes and formulaic plots that we can bundle ourselves in like giant, loud security blankets. Thankfully, probably due to its sheer star power and the fact that it did better than most, 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow is getting a well-deserved sequel, and according to its director, it’s poised to change the world of sequels forever.

The sci-fi/military fusion Edge of Tomorrow was that rarest of gifts when it debuted back in 2014, a masterful action picture with an original high-concept angle and a whip-smart script. Hollywood then scrambled to find something for director Doug Liman, a clearly skilled orchestrator of large-scale setpieces, to do with his talents. First order of business was getting him back together with his Edge of Tomorrow star Tom Cruise (their new collaboration, American Made, comes to theaters on September 29 of next year), and following that, Liman’s choice was "do everything." He signed on for the Gambit solo picture and then bailed, agreed to bring YA dystopian franchise Chaos Walking to the screen, made plans for a Edge of Tomorrow sequel, and inked a deal to direct DC’s "dark universe" picture after Guillermo Del Toro dropped out.

Hey, remember Jumper? That weird teleporting action flick poised to keep Hayden Christensen in the sci-fi limelight after Revenge of the Sith? It even had a silver-haired Sam Jackson! Anyway, the sequel no one wanted is coming to YouTube as a TV series. Oh, and YouTube does TV series now.