Several outlets are reporting today that director Doug Liman will be directing the adaptation of a popular Japanese anime novel by Hiroshi Sakurazaka.

All You Need Is Kill was released in the states last year, and is about an alien invasion in which the protagonist sets off to battle, and dies.

He is reborn every morning to fight another day, only to perish again.  A female soldier named Bitch of War makes an appearance as well. The book is referred to as being video-game inspired.

Chances are, you are familiar with Liman’s work. He has directed Swingers, The Bourne Identity, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith.

His latest movie Fair Game stars Naomi Watts and Sean Penn and will be hitting theaters November 19.  The movie tells the politically charged story about Valerie Plame who was outed by the White House staff as being a CIA operative.

So far, Liman has been able to smoothly transition from one genre to another, which makes us excited to see what he can do with this.

USA Networks’ new series Covert Affairs doesn’t premiere until July 13, but The Flickcast was invited to Toronto to check out the set and talk to some of the cast.  There’s too much content to put in one post so we thought it was best to break this up over several articles.  Getting things started is this interview with Covert Affairs Executive Producer Doug Liman.

Even if you haven’t heard of Liman but are into the spy genre there’s a high probability you’ve seen one of his films.  Liman directed the first of the Bourne trilogy films and produced the other two.  He also produced Mr. and Mrs. Smith and is currently working on Fair Game; the true story of CIA spy Valerie Plame Wilson whose identity was revealed by the White House to allegedly discredit her husband.

With all that on Liman’s film resume it’s no surprise he was drawn to a TV series about spies.  Ultimately, however, it was working on Fair Game that became the driving force behind Covert Affairs. According to Liman:

“…in doing the research for Fair Game, we got access to a lot of current and former covert officers with the CIA. And most of the material that we were learning about had no place in the movie, unless I wanted the movie to be 10 hours long. And so we had this huge treasure trove of just sort of cool factoids.

And you know, that stuff is, you know, it was just like the perfect timing to be developing a TV show in the same arena at the same time, because we’ve just taken all the research that, you know, wasn’t appropriate for Fair Game and just channeled it right into Covert Affairs.”

While at their core Covert Affairs and Fair Game are about the CIA both spin the material in completely different directions. While Covert Affairs plays to the strengths of the CIA and what they do to protect the nation, Fair Game definitely represents the Agency in a moment of weakness.

This distinction was not lost on Liman as he explained the differences:

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We at The Flickcast are pretty diligent about serving up all the news that comes out each week. However, try as we may to cover it all, some things occassionally slip by. Well, no longer.

Welcome to On The Radar! This weekly post will be your premiere destination for a comprehensive roundup of items that may be developing stories we’re watching, Twitter commentary, or other relevant news that wasn’t quite ready for prime time just yet.  In short, a grab bag of geek items which are sure to please.

Let’s see what blips are on the radar this week.

‘Zombieland’ devours video rentals

Zombieland dominated the video lists this week, “…on the Nielsen VideoScan Blu-ray Disc chart, “Zombieland” went three for three, bowing at No. 1 and …racked up 31% of its total first-week sales from the Blu-ray Disc.” Way to go Zombieland, we can’t wait for the sequeal.

‘Avatar’ 3D boosts Cineplex ticket sales in Canada

3D showings of Avatar did wonders for Cineplex’s bottom line in Canada, “Despite running for only 13 days during its latest financial frame, “Avatar 3D” was Cineplex’s biggest boxoffice performer during the fourth quarter to Dec. 31, and has done around $74 million in Canadian ticket receipts to date.” No surprise really given the popularity of this film and the fact 3D showings are still being sold, out or causing line-ups.

Geek flicks drive Viacom profits

DVD and Blu-Ray disc sales from Star Trek, Transformers 2 and G.I. Joe stimulated Viacom’s fourth quarter earnings to the tune of $694 million.  Not bad considering the $173 million it made in the same quarter in 2008.  Also helping was the indie hit Paranormal Activity which increased operating expenses by 24%.

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