Tom Cruise to star in back-to-back ET invasion flicks

By Robbie Graham Silver Screen Saucers

Sakurazaka's graphic novel

Variety reports that Tom Cruise has agreed to star in All You Need Is Kill – a big screen adaptation of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s graphic novel about a soldier in a future war against extraterrestrials known as ‘Mimics’ who finds himself stuck in a Groundhog Day-style time loop and is forced to relive his last day over and over again after being killed. With each new resurrection the soldier’s skill improves, giving him the chance to change not only his own fate, but that of humanity.

All you Need is Kill will be directed by Doug Liman for Warner Bros. Cruise is expected to start work on the movie in late 2012, making it an alien-packed year for the star. In March, Cruise will begin work on Universal’s Horizons – a $100 million sci-fi epic directed by TRON: Legacy helmer, Joseph Kosinski, adapted from his forthcoming graphic novel, Oblivion. 

Earlier this year, Variety said of Horizons:

"Cruise is set to star as Jack, a man who lives in the clouds above Earth and heads to its surface to repair drones that essentially keep the planet safe from an alien race that has all but wiped out humanity.

There are two key female characters -- Victoria, Jack's right-hand woman and lover who serves as his eyes and ears while he's on repair missions, and Julia, his fiancee on Earth before the alien invasion.”

Artwork from the forthcoming graphic novel Oblivion, on which the movie Horizons is to be based

Although All You Need Is Kill and Horizons share obvious narrative themes – and Tom Cruise as leading man – director Doug Liman has insisted that the two movies will be “completely different.”

Horizons is due for release in July of 2013; All You Need Is Kill will follow later in the same year or in early 2014.