Warner Bros. is in search of a major star to topline their adaptation of All You Need Is Kill, now going by the title We Are Mortals.  The studio first wanted Brad Pitt, a natural choice since his Mr. and Mrs. Smith director Doug Liman is the man in charge of Mortals.  Pitt must not have jumped at the chance to reunite with Liman, because according to THR, Warner Bros. is in talks with Tom Cruise for the starring role.  The news is briefly mentioned in one of those “Tom Cruise Is Back!” features the trades are fond of.  (It’s worth a read if you can stomach revelations like, “[Cruise is] working cheaper at times—sources say he’s getting just $5 million for Ages.”  In other words: not worth a read.)

The premise of the Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s novel is an eye-catcher: “A young Army recruit who, despite being killed in the first day of intergalactic alien invasion of Earth, is continually resurrected Groundhog Day–style to the day before he was killed.”  Full synopsis after the jump.

You know who wants Brad Pitt for their movie?  Everybody.  Vulture reports that Warner Bros. wants Pitt to star in Doug Liman’s All You Need Is Kill after deciding to put the kibosh on Liman’s far more expensive sci-fi heist flick Luna once co-fiancier Skydance dropped out.  All You Need Is Kill is based on the manga by Hiroshi Sakurazaka and it doesn’t have a bad premise: “A young Army recruit who, despite being killed in the first day of intergalactic alien invasion of Earth, is continually resurrected Groundhog Day–style to the day before he was killed.”  So you have the same worthwhile thematic ground as Source Code and Johnny Got His Gun—the soldier we can’t let rest in peace.  There were reportedly some third act problems where the protagonist “dispatches aliens in the same rote way as a twelve year old who’s played too much XBox 360,” but those problems have reportedly been resolved to the studio’s satisfaction.

Hit the jump for why this kind of interest is irrelevant for someone of Pitt’s stature.

The 2010 Black List has been announced.  For those who don’t know, the Black List is a list of the best “unproduced” screenplays in Hollywood.  I put “unproduced” in quotations because some of these screenplays are in various stages of production.  For instance, College Republicans (formerly Young Republicans) has Shia LaBeouf and Paul Dano circling the project while Safe House has Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds on board.  J.C. Chandor’s script (which he also directed) Margin Call is the furthest along of the Top 10 as it’s already set to premiere at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.

Hit the jump to check out the 2010 Black List Top Ten.

We’ve been keeping tabs on All You Need is Kill for awhile now, since it was a Dante Harper spec script with a cool title and an even cooler conceit that managed to siren $3 million from Warner Bros.  Doug Liman (Fair Game) has been attached as director pretty much all summer, but according to Variety, the studio has made it official.  When we spoke with Liman last month, he was enthused by Harper’s script.

“It’s an amazing script.  It’s a wholly original piece of writing.  It delivers all of the whiz-bang satisfaction of a big Hollywood effects movie, but it does it in a completely original way.”

Hit the jump for the official synopsis, to see just what spoke to Liman so deeply.

In the new USA Network drama Covert Affairs (which premieres July 13th), Annie Walker (Piper Perabo) is a young CIA trainee who is thrust into the inner sanctum of the Agency when she is unexpectedly promoted to field operative. Although she has been plucked from obscurity for her exceptional linguistic skills, there may be bigger reasons why her CIA bosses (Peter Gallagher and Kari Matchett) have taken an interest in her.  With her new job, Annie has to hide her life from her family and friends, including her intrusive older sister (Anne Dudek), but CIA military agent Auggie Anderson (Christopher Gorham), blinded while on assignment, does his best to make her life at the Agency a little smoother.

During a recent interview, executive producer Doug Liman talked about developing a story for the small screen versus the big screen and explained why the USA Network was the perfect fit for this project. He also gave an update on the status of All You Need is Kill and Nick Tungsten, Nightmare Hunter. Check out what he had to say after the jump:

Director Doug Liman (Mr. and Ms. Smith) will possibly direct All You Need is Kill now that his planned adaptation of The Three Musketeers will be put on hold.  Warner Bros. planned to start production on The Three Musketeers this fall but according to Deadline it seems that the studio has decided to put the project in stasis after being beat to the finish line by Paul W.S. Anderson’s (Resident Evil) competing 3D adaptation of The Three Musketeers, which is currently in production and already set for a April 15^th, 2011 release date.

Hit the jump to find out more about All You Need is Kill along with what other projects Liman might direct next.

I’m a sucker for a catchy title, and All You Need Is Kill hooks me in a major way.  It hooked Warner Bros. as well, who paid an impressive $3 million for the Dante Harper-scripted adaptation of the Hiroshi Sakurazaka novel of the same name.  Deadline’s report delves nicely into an analysis of the risks and benefits of writing a full screenplay on spec (i.e. with no deal in place).  Namely, your scripting efforts may be for naught if the studios don’t like what they read, but you get to skip the arduous pitching process and the potential financial reward is huge.  In this case, Harper came to the studio with a fully fleshed out screenplay with great potential and an awesome title.  As a reward, Kill netted the screenwriter a seven figure payday for a film that will find its way in front of the camera by this time next year.

The plot details a futuristic world invaded by aliens with a Groundhog Day twist, but I’ll let the plot synopsis for Sakurazaka’s novel do a better job of explaining it after the break.