While Edge Of Tomorrow was a critical success and did decent business at the box office, it was something of a tricky pitch for Warner Bros., who chopped and changed over the title, and generally struggled to convey the film’s premise during its marketing campaign. Writer Chris McQuarrie is well aware of this, and would be keen to ease the process when potentially making a sequel…
“It all comes down to Warner Bros. and Doug Liman and Emily Blunt saying yes,” McQuarrie told Uproxx, in the wake of Tom Cruise’s comments that an idea for a sequel is in place. “The idea is there. At worst, it’s the kernel of an idea – which is, on one hand, great, but on the other hand, I know what a nightmare that is. I know that I’ll be in the void trying to figure that out.”
“And even then when it came out in the press after Tom had mentioned it, right away, there were people on social media saying, 'Don’t do it, it should never have a sequel, etc, etc.' And I’m just laughing because I’m like, 'You guys don’t even know what we are talking about! You have no idea!'”
“What I’ve learned, having made Mission:Impossible, is what I would write into the movie to make that movie an easier sell. Edge Of Tomorrow was incredibly difficult to market. From the look of the film, to the title of the film, whatever the title was, whether it was All You Need Is Kill or Edge Of Tomorrow - and God help us figuring out what the title of the sequel is. The Edge Of The Day After Tomorrow? I don’t know.”
“But the humour in the film took a good 35 minutes to really dawn on you – the movie really sneaks up on you and takes this sudden left turn. The movie didn’t have the moments that a trailer needs to tell you, 'This is the experience you’re going to have.'”
It’s certainly interesting to hear a blockbuster filmmaker talking about the need to write marketing-friendly sequences into a project, but McQuarrie certainly has enough tentpole experience to know what he’s talking about. And for the record, we would be very much on board for The Edge Of The Day After Tomorrow… with a little title-tweaking!
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