Why ‘Edge Of Tomorrow’ Got Retitled ‘Live Die Repeat’
Edge of Tomorrowis one of the most unfortunate cases of a studio movie underperforming in the last few years. Most seem to agree it’s a high-quality summer movie, but it didn’t immediately strike a chord with audiences at the domestic box-office back in 2015. Some lay blame on the title, which directorDoug Limanalso didn’t love.
Below, Liman talks about why he prefers the titleLive Die Repeat.
When Liman’s film hit DVD and Blu-Ray, it appearedEdge of Tomorrowhad gotten a new title:Live Die Repeat. It was plastered over the cover. Even on Amazon, it’s calledLive Die Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow. It’s still not the boldest or memorable title, but Liman toldDen of Geekwhen the sequel,Live Die Repeat and Repeatcomes out,Edge of Tomorrowwill be permanently retitledLive Die Repeat:
So the book was calledAll You Need Is Kill. Japanese. I was making a comedy – an action comedy, andAll You Need Is Killdidn’t feel like it was the tone of the movie I had made. The studio wanted to call itEdge Of Tomorrow, and I wanted to call itLive Die Repeat. I fought vehemently and lost. And then when the film came out and people loved it but the box-office wasn’t as good as it should have been, I really railed into the executive at Warner Bros who’d insisted thatEdge Of Tomorrowwas the better title.
“I was like, ‘It clearly is not. You were wrong.’ I committed the cardinal sin of telling somebody in Hollywood when they’re wrong, like, literally – I ended up having to call the person and apologize for pointing out that they were wrong. And they started titling it the title I always thought it should have, which isLive Die Repeat. But they tiptoed around it, and when we make the sequel, it’ll be permanently titledLive Die Repeat. The sequel will beLive Die Repeat and Repeat.
Live Die Repeatdoes provide a better sense of what the sci-fi movie is thanEdge of Tomorrow, which sounds more like the title of a disaster movie or a post-apocalyptic film. WhileAll You Need is Killis catchy, that sounds more like a title for some straight-up action or revenge movie. Neither title seemed to do the film justice. As for the sequel Liman is going to make toLive Die Repeat,he’s saidit’s a matter of when, not if. The filmmaker, whose candor you gotta love, has described it assequel and prequelthat’ll “revolutionize how people make sequels.”
