You would think that given the release calendar for 2014 is still pretty wide open, studios wouldn't be crowding their major tentpoles close together, but already, March of that year is looking like it's going to be a wrestling match of competing films. And showdowns don't get much bigger than Tom Cruise vs. Angelina Jolie.
Warner Bros. has set the Doug Liman directed "All You Need Is Kill" for a March 14, 2014 release pitting it against the fairy tale reimagining "Maleficent." Granted, one is a family oriented Disney movie and the other a futuristic sci-fi action flick, but Tom and Angelina on the same weekend? Someone is gonna blink and move. March 21st is still open somewhat, with Summit's YA effort "Divergent" slated, though March 28th brings with it Darren Aronofsky's "Noah." Meanwhile, the first weekend of the month is pegged for Sony's disaster movie "Invertigo."
Regardless of how it plays out, "All You Need Is Kill" boasts a pretty interesting little concept. An adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka's novel, the story follows a soldier in an alien war who finds himself living his last day in battle over and over again after being caught in a time loop, becoming a better soldier along the way. Emily Blunt, Charlotte Riley and Bill Paxton co-star. Here's the synopsis via Deadline:
The story unfolds in a near future in which a hive-like alien race, called Mimics, have hit the Earth in an unrelenting assault, shredding great cities to rubble and leaving millions of human casualties in their wake. No army in the world can match the speed, brutality or seeming prescience of the weaponized Mimic fighters or their telepathic commanders. But now the world’s armies have joined forces for a last stand offensive against the alien horde, with no second chances.
Lt. Col. Bill Cage (Cruise) is an officer who has never seen a day of combat when he is unceremoniously demoted and then dropped—untrained and ill-equipped—into what amounts to little more than a suicide mission. Cage is killed within minutes, managing to take an Alpha down with him. But, impossibly, he awakens back at the beginning of the same hellish day, and is forced to fight and die again…and again. Direct physical contact with the alien has thrown him into a time loop—dooming him to live out the same brutal combat over and over.
But with each pass, Cage becomes tougher, smarter, and able to engage the Mimics with increasing skill, alongside Special Forces warrior Rita Vrataski (Blunt), who has lain waste to more Mimics than anyone on Earth. As Cage and Rita take the fight to the aliens, each repeated battle becomes an opportunity to find the key to annihilating the alien invaders and saving the Earth.
