Here’s what you need to know about “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” it wasn’t expected out until December, but apparently Paramount had major confidence in the movie even though it only finished filming this spring and fast-tracked it into a summer release. But unlike most blockbusters, the early release meant ‘Rogue Nation’ wouldn’t benefit from almost a year of pre-promotion: we only received the first trailer for the film at the end of March. Is that enough launch pad road for such a gigantic franchise? If you look at it as April to the end of July, Paramount has essentially given itself only four months to promote their film; that’s got to be the shortest window for promotion on a blockbuster in recent memory. Even “Fantastic Four””—a summer films that critics were complaining weren’t revealing themselves soon enough—unveiled its goods in February for an August release and this was deemed “late.”
But does Tom Cruise and the ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise transcend these conventional wisdom marketing rules? Considering "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol" was the highest grossing of the series worldwide (almost $700 million), though not domestically, Paramount might not be sweatin’ it.
We didn’t really know a lot about the film up until recently, but in a Yahoo interview with director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise, they shed a little light on the movie. There’s lots of little details there, but highlights include the fact that the movie will be similar in tone to ‘Ghost Protocol’ and it will have little nods to the past ‘Mission Impossible’ films including even little Easter eggs.
Why Is McQuarrie directing such a gigantic-sized tentpole: after all the biggest film he’s shot to date was the more grounded and modest action film “Jack Reacher.” Well, Cruise is a believer and that’s all that really matters. “The guy is a genius at storytelling,” he told Yahoo. “Understanding structure and story. He wrote ‘Ghost Protocol’–he really came in and helped crack the story and structure of the film. On ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ he came in and worked with Doug (Liman) and I and really re-wrote ‘Edge Of Tomorrow’. That’s a lot of hard work and a lot of talent to be able to write something like that.”
Well, that’s hard to argue. “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” co-stars Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Sean Harris, America Olivo, Alec Baldwin and opens on July 31st. Watch the new trailer below.