According to Variety, Mission: Impossible franchise star Tom Cruise is hoping the upcoming Mission: Impossible 7 will begin production again this June after being postponed along with most other movie and television productions due to the global pandemic. However, there’s no guarantee of a start date until the industry can make sure sets remain free of the coronavirus; in this case, meaning there is a possibility the new Mission: Impossible film could scrap the Italian shoot entirely as travel restrictions remain in place.
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Mission: Impossible filmmakers are weighing their options and trying to decide if they should push the Italian location shoot until fall, if the virus subsides by then, or do away with those plans entirely. While producers and studios across Hollywood have had high hopes production shutdowns might be lifted in May or early this summer, everyone is beginning to “accept a new, unpredictable and troubling reality.”
Contagion director Steven Soderbergh is currently leading a task force to determine when productions can resume, while also trying to establish new standards, including implementing ideas like taking crew members’ temperatures before they enter a studio lot; test employees for antibodies indicating they may have some immunity to COVID-19; possible waves of testing for cast and crew to check for infections; mandating employees isolate themselves during a shoot (by staying in hotels and assigned housing); providing crew members with masks and gloves, cleaning shifts, and so on.
Production on Mission: Impossible 7 started up again last month after filming was relocated to the UK following a three-week shooting hiatus.
Joining Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell are returning Mission: Impossible alums Rebecca Ferguson (Doctor Sleep), Simon Pegg (Ready Player One), Ving Rhames (Pulp Fiction), Vanessa Kirby (Hobbs & Shaw) and Henry Czerny (Ready or Not) along with newcomers Shea Whigham (Joker), Pom Klementieff (Guardians of the Galaxy 2, Avengers: Infinity War) and Nicholas Hoult (Mad Max: Fury Road)
Following the large critical and commercial success of the past two installments, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie signed a new deal with Paramount to return to write and direct the next two installments, turning down other studio offers to continue his long-running partnership with franchise star Tom Cruise. Skydance Media, who joined the franchise with the fourth installment, Ghost Protocol, will be returning to produce the next two entries.
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The Mission: Impossible franchise spans almost 25 years and six films, starting off with modest critical and major box office success in the first two films before launching its lead protagonist into grittier and more explosive stories, each film getting progressively better reviews than its predecessor, with the most recent installment, Fallout, earning the highest reviews for both the franchise and the action genre, currently maintaining a 97% approval rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes while also acquiring the highest box office gross of the franchise at over $790 million worldwide.
Mission: Impossible 7 is set to premiere on July 23, 2021, followed by Mission: Impossible 8 August 5, 2022.
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