When he’s playing Ethan Hunt in the ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies, Tom Cruise can do many things: jump out of planes, hang on to aircraft, climb mountains freehand. But the one challenge even he can’t seem to conquer is Covid delays.
Paramount has decided to move back the next two ‘Impossible’ movies on its release schedule, to July 14, 2023, and June 2024. The new films, currently still only known as ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ and ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ have bounced around different dates for the last couple of years – there was a time when the first of the two was due in July 2020. Remember that?
Most recently, the movies had been set for September 30 this year and July 7, 2023, respectively.
No specific plot details for either movie have been released, but we can expect plenty of the practical stunt action for which Cruise and the series has become known.
Alongside Cruise, returning actors for one or both movies include Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby. And in a move likely to spark enthusiasm in fans of the original 1996 movie, Henry Czerny is back as Eugene Kittridge, the former director of the Impossible Mission force who was framed as a mole in that film.
McQuarrie and his ‘Mission’ cast and crew have faced their own challenges shooting in a time when the pandemic caused so much disruption. Plans to film in Italy were curtailed as Covid-19 began to take its toll on the world, and resuming production required a complicated mix of safety protocols and location changes.
Cruise was overheard berating crew members who breached the distance advice on set, and the various issues caused by the pandemic have been part of the reason why Paramount has been shifting the movies around the release calendar.
Add to that the ongoing challenges with cinema attendance levels and concern for audience safety, which have led to many movies either pushing back their release or moving to streaming services. Paramount is one of the studios that has tried to keep its bigger releases in cinemas, resulting in delays for several movies, including fellow Cruise project ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ (currently due to land on screens on May 27 this year).
That’s despite recent success with the new ‘Scream’, which has already earned more than $ 54 million at the worldwide box office. Paramount, of course is being more careful with the huge-budgeted ‘Mission’ movies, which also require extensive promotional tours.
“After thoughtful consideration, Paramount Pictures and Skydance have decided to postpone the release dates for ‘Mission: Impossible 7 & 8‘ in response to delays due to the ongoing pandemic. The new release dates will be July 14, 2023, and June 28, 2024, respectively. We look forward to providing moviegoers with an unparalleled theatrical experience,” Paramount and Skydance said in a statement.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is just to keep on waiting.
After his stint on the original “Top Gun,” Lebenzon went on to earn another Oscar nomination for editing 1995’s “Crimson Tide.” His credits include “Days of Thunder,” “Armageddon,” and “Enemy of the State.” He has also edited Tim Burton’s films for the last 25 years, including mostly recently “Dumbo.”
“Top Gun: Maverick” opens in theaters June 26, 2020.
Here are some of our other favorite Pitt movie team-ups.
Leonardo DiCaprio in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” (2019)
Sony
Washed up western star Rick Calton (DiCaprio) doesn’t really appreciate best friend Cliff Booth (Pitt) enough. He’s Rick’s stunt double, chauffeur, all-around-handyman and bucker-upper. Cliff’s got it rough too (he’s living in a trailer, not a Hollywood Hills mansion), but he’s dealing with the end of his glory days better than Rick. A lot better.
The Danny and Rusty friendship is the heart of the “Ocean’s” films. (Remember when they both got choked up over Oprah?) And fun trivia: This scene from the first film, where they plot out their big Vegas heist, takes place in the exact same real-life Hollywood location, Musso & Frank, as in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.” They’re even sitting in the exact same spot at the bar. Cheers.
In this darkly funny David Fincher film we can’t watch enough, Tyler Durden and “Cornelius” (as Norton’s name badge reads at one of his support group meetings) have a very tricky, complicated relationship. Tyler is everything Norton’s character wants to be: Handsome, stylish, anarchic, and a born leader. (Also, abs for days.) Together, they start Fight Club and blow stuff up. Including our minds.
Freeman is William Somerset, the jaded cop who’s close to retirement, Pitt is David Mills, the eager young hot-shot who is in way over his head. Somerset tries to be the voice of caution and reason, but this case ends in … well, one of the grimmest finales ever. Imagine a movie where the two just hang out, have dinner, do research, and nobody’s loved ones get murdered. We’d still totally watch that.
Aldo Raine (Pitt) and Donny “The Bear Jew” Donowitz (Roth) have the Third Reich on the run as they roam the German countryside, “killing Nat-zees” in Tarantino’s so-not-based-on-real-events World War II film. Their Italian might be a little weak and their big plan a little reckless, but hell if it doesn’t work.
Imagine getting these two superstars back onscreen today. Cruise’s casting as flamboyant blond vampire Lestat was widely criticized at the time (author Anne Rice objected strongly, then praised him when the film came out.) Louis is arguably Pitt’s most passive role — Lestat is the drama queen here — but we enjoy watching them bicker and brood.
We don’t know what the heck Pitt’s unintelligible bare-knuckle boxer Mickey is saying most of the time in this underrated Guy Ritchie film and neither does boxing promoter Turkish (Statham). But we know Mickey can fight and Turkish can talk his way out of just about any situation. And that’s all that matters.
Former baseball player Billy Beane (Pitt) is having a losing season as general manager of the Oakland Athletics. Can a radical new approach from a young Yale econ grad (Hill) change the game? In real life, this team changed the sport forever. And the movie earned Oscar noms for both Pitt and Hill. Double play.
Not-too-bright gym employees Linda Litzke (McDormand) and Chad Feldheimer (Pitt) see a chance for some big money when a CD containing an ex-CIA agent’s memoir falls into their hands in this terrific, lesser-seen Coen Bros. film. It’s a pairing we absolutely love.
The first “Top Gun: Maverick” trailer made a surprise debut at Comic-Con last week, and not only has it inspired excitement, but there’s a whiff of controversy, too. Fans are speculating that Paramount made a change to the iconic bomber jacket worn by Maverick (Tom Cruise) to pander to the Chinese government, as THR reports.
Mark MacKinnon of The Globe and Mail noted in a tweet Friday that it looked like Maverick was wearing the same leather jacket as he did in “Top Gun” — with a notable change. The journalist showed in two photos that the jacket’s patch no longer has the Japanese and Taiwanese flags. That, he speculated, was a move made to appease the Chinese government.
“There’s a new Top Gun movie coming out,” he wrote. “And Maverick is wearing the same leather jacket – only this time it’s Communist Party of China-approved, so the Japanese and Taiwanese flag patches are gone (screenshot on right is from the new trailer)…”
There’s a new Top Gun movie coming out. And Maverick is wearing the same leather jacket – only this time it’s Communist Party of China-approved, so the Japanese and Taiwanese flag patches are gone (screenshot on right is from the new trailer)… pic.twitter.com/gUxFNFNUKX
In a followup tweet, MacKinnon noted that one of the film’s producers is the Chinese company Tencent Pictures, saying, “‘Mystery’ solved.”
Others weighed in on the topic as well, some pointing out that the Chinese box office is too big not to ignore. As one user wrote, “the Chinese market is huge and alienating that government means losing billions of dollars in additional revenue.” Meanwhile, some were outraged by the idea of letting money dictate such decisions.
There hasn’t been a response from either Paramount or Tencent, so fans are left to speculate. Some did note that there could be other reasons for the change. The entire patch appears to be different; whereas it said “Far East Cruise 63-4” at the top in the original film, it now says, “Indian Ocean Cruise 85-86.” It’s possible Maverick got a new jacket in the last three decades.
Whatever the reason for the change, “Top Gun: Maverick” has already got people talking.
Paramount Pictures and Tom Cruise had a big surprise at San Diego Comic-Con on Thursday: the first official “Top Gun: Maverick” trailer.
The preview didn’t disappoint. It puts Peter “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) back in the cockpit and shows glimpses of the next generation of fighter pilots. In case you’re curious what Maverick has been up to for the last 30-plus years, there’s an answer for that, too. The trailer offers a quick summary of the pilot’s accomplishments as well as some of his shortcomings.
And, of course, you’ll see some great aerial footage. The film’s release was previously delayed to get stellar in-air action scenes, and from what we’ve seen so far, the wait is going to be worth it. Watch below.
Stanley Kubrick’s final film “Eyes Wide Shut” went misjudged and misunderstood by many during its initial release, but 20 years later, it feels like the perfect kind of cryptic grace note to a career that always kept audiences guessing. Outwardly the story of Dr. Bill Harford (Tom Cruise), his wide Alice (Nicole Kidman) and his nightmarish odyssey through a sexually-charged community of privilege and secrecy, Kubrick’s adaptation of the 1926 novel by Arthur Schnitzler touches on some important and uncomfortable truths about marriage, intimacy, gender roles and desire that prompt new interpretations with every viewing. To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the film’s release, Moviefone looks back at the legend that has grown around its epic production for a few of the lesser-known details about its making, its meaning, and the man who remains one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
1. Stanley Kubrick first acquired the source material, Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle in 1968 after completing 2001: A Space Odyssey.
2. In the 1970s, he reportedly imagined it with Woody Allen in the lead role. In the 1980s, he re-conceived a version of the story as a melancholy sex comedy starring Steve Martin. Kubrick briefly considered Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger for Bill and Alice Harford as well.
3. Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman won their roles after visiting the Kubrick estate during the shooting of Kidman’s film “Portrait of a Lady” in England. Meanwhile, Bill and Alice were given the last name “Harford” as a reference to Kubrick’s onetime desire to find a leading man like Harrison Ford for the film.
Warner Bros.
4. Harvey Keitel was originally cast as Victor Ziegler and Jennifer Jason Leigh as Marion, the daughter of Bill’s patient. Although shooting began with them in the roles, both had to drop out due to scheduling conflicts and they were later replaced by Sydney Pollack and Marie Richardson. Eva Herzigova was offered the role of Domino that eventually went to Vinessa Shaw, but turned it down because it required too much nudity (though there’s none featuring the character in the final film).
5. Despite the film’s New York setting, Kubrick shot almost the entire film in London at Pinewood Studios, where he recreated Greenwich Village. Exteriors in New York were shot and rear projected behind Cruise for several walking scenes by second unit cinematographers such as Malik Sayeed (“He Got Game”).
6. Kubrick reportedly sowed disharmony between real-life couple Cruise and Kidman on set, marrying art and life: after intimate therapy sessions whose contents were never to be disclosed, Kubrick forbade Cruise from visiting set while Kidman was shooting her erotic scenes with the Naval Officer in her character’s fantasies.
7. Stanley Kubrick makes a small cameo in the film sitting across from Bill’s table at the Sonata Café.
Warner Bros.
8. For the sex scenes, Kubrick researched “Basic Instinct,” “Showgirls” and other erotic thrillers such as TV’s “Red Show Diaries,” primarily to evaluate how far he could push the film’s sexual content without running the risk of an NC-17 rating. Nevertheless, his final cut was considered too explicit my the MPAA, leading Warner Brothers to use CGI couples during the orgy scenes in order to minimize the explicit content. (The original unrated version is the one currently available on Warner Blu-rays.)
9. Cate Blanchett provided ADR for the mysterious masked woman who approaches Bill at the orgy, rather than actress Abigail Good, whose English accent was too thick.
10. A scene late in the film between Bill and Victor Ziegler reportedly took three weeks and nearly 200 takes to get right.
11. “Eyes Wide Shut” won recognition from Guinness Book of World Records for the longest constant movie shoot, lasting 400 days.
12. The extended shooting schedule wreaked havoc on the stars’ upcoming commitments, including “Mission: Impossible 2,” which was pushed back considerably.
WB
13. It was during the shooting of the film that Paul Thomas Anderson visited the set and offered Cruise the part of Frank “T.J.” Mackey in “Magnolia.”
14. Stanley Kubrick died of a heart attack just four days after presenting his final cut to Warner Brothers. Various rumors and disputing accounts have suggested that the filmmaker was unhappy with the film or that additional changes needed to be made, but according to those closest to him, Kubrick was very happy with the film and showed Warner what he considered his definitive version.
15. At $162 million worldwide, “Eyes Wide Shut” is Kubrick’s highest-grossing film.
Action hero Jack Reacher is making the leap to the small screen, with Amazon nabbing the rights to turn author Lee Child’s bestselling books into a TV series.
Deadline reports that the project will be spearheaded by Nick Santora, who previously created CBS series “Scorpion.” Santora will write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner on the new drama.
For those keeping track at home, yes, the Reacher character has already appeared on the big screen, in a pair of films starring Tom Cruise as the titular ex-Army investigator. And while 2012’s “Jack Reacher” and 2016’s “Jack Reacher: Never Go Back” performed well at the box office, Child admitted late last year that he didn’t entirely agree with Cruise’s casting, thanks to the actor’s diminutive height.
“The size of Reacher is really, really important and it’s a big component of who he is. The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you’re all a little nervous just for that first minute,” the author explained at the time. “And Cruise, for all his talent, didn’t have that physicality.”
Presumably, the search will now be on for a much taller actor to fill Reacher’s shoes. But the creative team appears to be aiming for a similar vibe to the films, securing original studio Paramount as a producer, and director Christopher McQuarrie as an executive producer.
There are more than 20 books in Child’s bestselling series. Stay tuned to find out which ones make the cut for the TV drama.
There are few contemporary filmmakers who have more successfully helped audiences navigate the treacherous waters of relationships than Cameron Crowe. After his illustrious time as a teenage reporter for Rolling Stone, Crowe began his career as a social documentarian of sorts — going undercover to report on the life of the modern teenager — where he seemed to learn quickly about the journeys that are common to adolescents. But each of his subsequent films has showcased not only his own maturity as a filmmaker, but that of viewers growing up with his films. Crowe became a chronicler, and a guide, for life’s twists and turns, imparting important life lessons via vivid, specific stories that are emotionally powerful and deeply relatable. To commemorate his 62nd birthday on July 13, Moviefone takes a look back at his body of work, ranking his various film projects as portraits, some more successful than others, of life’s big and little changes and how best to process and transcend them. (Crowe’s Elton John-Leon Russell documentary “The Union” is excluded from this list because it is currently unavailable to stream anywhere. Hopefully that’ll change)
Despite featuring a lead character whose last name is very similar to this author’s, Crowe’s most recent big-screen effort proved to be his least effective. From its woeful but well-intentioned cultural representation (Emma Stone as half-Hawaiian Allison Ng) to its half-baked romance between Ng and military contractor Brian Gilcrest (Bradley Cooper) to its sociopolitical maneuvering (its climax involves a missile strike), this emotionally underwhelming dramedy (a passion project for the filmmaker that for many years existed under the title “Deep Tiki”) assembles a lot of intriguing pieces that never quite fit together.
There are so, so many individual parts that work in this 2005 drama about failed sneaker designer Drew Baylor (Orlando Bloom), his father’s funeral, and Claire (Kirsten Dunst), the flight attendant so perky that she inspired the movie trope Manic Pixie Dream Girl, that it comes as no small heartbreak that they don’t add up to a truly special whole, undone by a repetitive story and some very bad casting decisions (Bloom might be many things but a romantic comedy lead is not one of them). But Crowe’s gifts for weaving moments of magical humanism remain sharp even if they aren’t as focused as in previous years.
Based on the real-life memoir by Benjamin Mee, Crowe’s second meditation on grief and redemption is slightly more grounded than the first, but it still involves a dad (Matt Damon) who randomly decides to purchase and try and run a zoo in the wake of his wife’s death. He finds a budding new romance with a comely, very receptive young woman (Scarlett Johansson). While some of the idiosyncrasies of the plot are of course excusable because they actually happened, again Crowe doesn’t quite synthesize his story’s darker themes with his more whimsical ones, although the score by Sigur Ros mainstay Jonsi is genuinely lovely.
Directed by Art Linson (“Where The Buffalo Roam”), this Crowe script marked his first original work after “Fast Times,” and it was a thoughtful if somewhat predictable comedy about postgraduate teens finding their way through life and love after high school. Better known as the show of promise that led James L. Brooks to bankroll his first directorial effort than as an especially memorable ‘80s teen film, it manages to offer some nice grace notes to a genre that wasn’t often marked by anything original, much less sensitive.
Hot off of the tremendous success (critical, if not commercial) of “Almost Famous,” Crowe reunited with his “Jerry Maguire” star Tom Cruise for this English-language reimagining of the Spanish film “Abre Los Ojos,” in which then up-and-comer Penelope Cruz would reprise her role from the original. Unfortunately, much of the dreamlike magic of the original is lost in translation, although again he conjures some truly unique moments on screen — including shots of Cruise running through a completely empty New York City — and the chemistry between Cruise and Cruz is absolutely undeniable.
Crowe returned to the music-oriented material that dominated much of his journalism career and ventured into documentary filmmaking in the last decade with this retrospective portrait of Pearl Jam’s debut album and the unconventional career that evolved for the band from that early, potentially overwhelming success. Bereft of too much drama — which the band seemed to have relatively little of — it feels less like a tell-all than a victory lap, but anyone who came up in the era of grunge will find plenty to entertain them.
After “Say Anything…,” Crowe evidenced his willingness to grow up on screen both as a storyteller and via his characters with this drama about young Seattle professionals at the time when alternative music was exploding into the mainstream. Kyra Sedgwick and Campbell Scott pay two lovers trying to work through their own anxieties and insecurities in order to be partners for one another, while grunge luminaries pepper the background of scenes to give the film prescient authority about a pivotal musical and cultural moment.
Crowe’s biggest box office success came with this Billy Wilder-influenced story about a failed sports agent who develops a debilitating conscience in an industry without one . The romance between Tom Cruise’s title character and his secretary Dorothy (Renee Zellweger, breaking through in a big way) is sometimes a little uneven, even bordering on disastrous, but the fact that the movie knows that it’s borderline disastrous — and errs on the side of hope rather than convenient happiness — is what makes this story such an inspiring and romantic crowd-pleaser. Crowe’s entire career has always walked that fine line between genuine and saccharine and here that line is razor-thin.
Working with James J. Brooks (“Terms of Endearment”) in his corner, Crowe wrote and directed this great little movie about aspiring kickboxer Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack in a star-making role) and the overachieving classmate (Ione Skye) he falls in love with. Crowe absolutely perfectly captures the awkward and delightful little moments of discovery between two people learning how to love one another, while also expertly chronicling that tough moment between school and adulthood where every choice feels like a life-changing moment.
Directed by Amy Heckerling in her own feature debut, Crowe’s adaptation of his own captures the fun, silliness and pain of high school via a colorful cast of characters based on the real students he went to school with while undercover in San Diego for Rolling Stone. An uncommonly serious and sensitive depiction of pivotal adolescent moments, including first jobs, class struggles and sex, Crowe’s writing offers what has become a familiar outlook for him about his subjects (one of ultimate hope) without shying away from tougher topics like heartbreak and failure as the characters embark on adulthood. How many abortions have been depicted on screen in the years since, especially in what was ostensibly a wacky teen comedy? Exactly.
Crowe deservedly won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this semi-autobiographical account of the former reporter’s earliest days working for Rolling Stone magazine. Dealing with an unrequited crush on Penny Lane (Kate Hudson in a role that broke out another promising actress) while trying to navigate the vagaries of reporting on bands that he once idolized, the filmmaker’s stand-in William Miller (Patrick Fugit) piercingly captures the optimism, dashed hopes, heartbreak and advancing maturity of a young man forced to grow up faster than he’s ready. Teaching us that “honest and unmerciful” is the best way to go through life, Crowe reminds audiences what it’s like to be young, and how to grow older with grace and sensitivity.
More than 30 years after the original film’s release, a “Top Gun” sequel is finally set to take to the skies. And while the new flick has seen its share of delays, one of the new stars says it will definitely be worth the wait.
Based on Hamm’s rave review of the “out of this world” footage he’s seen so far, that production extension was the right call.
“They’re using some technology on this that is never before seen,” the actor told Collider. “We’re shooting the movie in, I think, 6K. So it’s incredibly hi-def. The aerial footage is mind-blowing. And it’s mostly practical. There’s not a lot of CG. Those guys are really up in planes and getting thrown around in multiple Gs.”
Sounds awesome. We’re looking forward to seeing the finished product when “Top Gun: Maverick” flies into theaters on June 26, 2020.
