Tom Cruise just released his best movie in years - American Made - before that his best movie in years was Edge of Tomorrow. The common denominator there was director Doug Liman, who also gave us indie classic Swingers and The Bourne Identity.
While neither 'Tomorrow' or 'Made' have done particularly well at the box-office, the home viewing of the former led to sequel talk. Apparently it will happen but it's just a case of scheduling Cruise's busy slate with Emily Blunts equally busy slate.
Liman told Collider:
“Tom and Emily [Blunt] and I are really excited to go do it. We have a script. We’re just trying to find a time to schedule it, between my schedule and Emily’s and Tom’s. But it’s one of these things where it’s a sequel whose origins come from the best possible place, which is, it’s not a studio saying, ‘Hey, we think we can make some more money. Let’s just stamp out another one.’
This sequel originated with fans of the original film who continually came up to Tom and myself and Emily and told us how much they loved the movie and would we ever consider a sequel. And enough people said that to me and to Tom and to Emily that we finally sat down and said, ‘What would a sequel even look like?’ We ended up with Chris McQuarrie (Cruise's Mission Impossible helmer) coming up with a great story.”
Cruise is in a strange place in terms of being a draw domestically now. American Made is a cracker of a film but hasn't done strong numbers in the US. The Mummy stunk up the gaff and it might be time for Maverick to rethink his 'everyone is a blockbuster' strategy and start working with directors like Liman, Paul Thomas Anderson and Michael Mann more.
