You have quite a number of exciting projects in different stages of development including Justice League Dark and Edge of Tomorrow 2. I’m super intrigued with Chaos Walking, as well. We know we’re getting American Made this fall, but which project do you think will follow?
Doug Liman: I don’t know yet. I’m actively working on Justice League Dark, Chaos Walking and Edge of Tomorrow 2 which is going to go by Live Die Repeat and Repeat and I’m really passionate about all three of them.
Doug, is that the actual title or are you screwing with me?
Doug Liman: No, that is the title. It’s Live Die Repeat and Repeat.
Okay, you know I was going to ask what the definitive title to Edge of Tomorrow was because we’ve seen in the marketing both Edge of Tomorrow and Live Die Repeat. It’s kind of been unclear. So that’s it, it’s Live Die Repeat and Live Die Repeat and Repeat?
Doug Liman: Yup, Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt are signed on and between that and Justice League Dark, Chaos Walking and a few other things I’m looking at, I have my plate full. Part of my process is my films are sort of in a continuum. When I go watch The Wall with audiences next weekend, that’s really when the film ends for me. When I’m watching it with a paying audience. They don’t know I’m there…
You’re not going to announce yourself? [laughs]
Doug Liman: First of all, no one knows what I look like and second of all, I don’t announce myself. I sit there in the audience with my popcorn and that’s sort of when I complete the experience and start to think about what I learned from it and what am I inspired to do next.
Right around the time you signed on for Justice League Dark you also left Gambit. What made you walk away?
Doug Liman: I look for a personal connection to the movies I make and it may not be immediately obvious. You know, like what’s my connection to Jason Bourne? I have a deeply personal connection to that movie because it’s all about Iran-Contra and my father ran the investigations into Iran-Contra. In every story I have a personal connection.
The Wall, you’d be like what could this filmmaker from New York possibly have in common with these two soldiers pinned down in Irag? But The Wall is really about perseverance. It’s about picking yourself up and you just keep going and that’s something I have firsthand experience with. Not in war but in other aspects of life.
With Gambit, I just never found that personal way in. Justice League Dark, I have a personal connection. Chaos Walking, I have a personal connection. Live Die Repeat and Repeat, I have a personal connection. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.
That concludes our chat, but many thanks to Doug Liman for his time. Be sure to catch The Wall as it’s now playing in theatres!