Hey folks, Scurlock here.
Christopher McQuarrie has had an interesting ride with Tom Cruise over the years. In fact, I hold him responsible for somewhat pushing Cruise's image out of the self-made fog of his manic, goobery public Scientology meltdown.
Tom Cruise used to be fun, and make fun movies. McQuarrie both on the page and in the director's chair appears to have the formula to make Cruise his best self, beginning with 2012's JACK REACHER (I liked it, anyone who kills human block of wood jai Courtney is a saint in my book), nailing peak Cruise goodness in Sci-Fi action-adventure EDGE OF TOMORROW, and bringing it all together in the increasingly great M:I series with last July's MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - ROGUE NATION.
Fortunately, Cruise has access to the magic that is McQuarrie once again in what appears to be a very quick turnaround for yet another Ethan Hunt and pals adventure, with Variety reporting that Paramount and Skydance are at the very least getting him back for screenwriting duty, with a good chance at keeping McQuarrie behind the camera as well.
At the time of their story there had been no official release from either McQuarrie or the studios involved, but the Academy Award-winning director followed up with a simple confirmation of his involvment not long after via Twitter:
Mission: Accepted #MI6
— ChristopherMcQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) November 30, 2015
With a target of a summer 2016 shoot, M:I 6 would be the quickest turnaround for a new film in the franchise to date.
The surprising vitality of the MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE series under Cruise has begun to mirror the over-the-top, ensemble-centric pure pleasure of another long-running series of films, the FAST & FURIOUS franchise. This has largely been a product of Cruise's Ethan Hunt finally having a proper team to interact with for more than a single film. Adding Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner to the long-time combo of Cruise and Ving Rhames (the only other cast member to span all five films) has created a richer character experience. And frankly, it's just a hell of a lot funnier.
Also in similar fashion to the FAST films, with Cruise at 53 appearing to have maniacally embraced increasingly insane stunt work, I'm certain the spectacle for coming M:I films will only get more bonkers. Elon Musk is going to Bungee cord Cruise to the outside of a rocket and fire him into the sun, and he's gonna be just fine.
ROGUE NATION went even further in establishing a more fleshed out universe for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, with the addition of former CIA Director, now IMF Secretary Alan Hunley (Alec Baldwin) in the mix. I would imagine there is every intention of utilizing him in the next film, and hopefully M:I can do the apparently impossible, and keep a woman in the film for more than one go. I vote for the return of Rebecca Ferguson's agent Ilsa Faust.
Either way, more MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE is good. More fun Cruise is good. This is all good.
Good.
