Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie has been quite the steward of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, alongside producer/star Tom Cruise, now having tackled four rather massive spy adventure blockbusters with the latest installment, “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” heading to theaters on May 23.
Speaking with French journalist Didier Allouch during an in-depth chat at the Cannes Film Festival (via Variety) to help promote the new flick, McQuarrie warns of the dangers of streaming killing the theatrical experience and commented on the negativity in Hollywood that sadly sees films and actors being pitted against each other.
“I’m not sitting here to advocate for [streaming] because I’m a diehard believer in the big-screen experience, and I believe that what makes film special is that however many hundreds of strangers have all come together to sit in a room and watch something together and experience something together,” the filmmaker/producer said. “Streaming is in danger of driving that into extinction.”
“One of the problems with contemporary cinema, particularly Hollywood, is over the course of my career, I’ve watched it develop into a competition. It has become about who crushes whom,” McQuarrie said of the unnecessary cutthroat competitiveness of Hollywood. “Tom Cruise is competing with no one but himself. He understands, and together we understand, that nobody wins unless everybody wins.”
You have to imagine that after shooting “Dead Reckoning” and “The Final Reckoning” with little to zero substantive breaks between the productions and the added pressure of completing stunt-driven globetrotting action films, navigating COVID-19 safety protcols and budgets ballooning, both Cruise and McQuarrie will want to take a serious break from returning to the franchise.
With that said, when asked about his future as Ethan Hunt, Cruise played coy, “I’d rather just people see it and enjoy and we’ve had an amazing time doing it, and it’s been a lot of fun and I just want you all to enjoy it. Enjoy this and know everything is the culmination has come to this moment right now.”
This would be a less exciting updated answer after stating back in 2023, he’d like to keep making “Mission: Impossible” films until he’s in his 80s as a way to keep up with action star peers like Harrison Ford.
Cruise had recently signed an overall deal with Warner Bros. and is currently filming the newest feature effort from Alejandro G. Iñárritu, lining up the supernatural thriller “Deeper” with director Doug Liman, another film with Liman that would see them shoot sequences in “space” with the involvement of SpaceX/Elon Musk (although, if they’re smart they’ve rethink that), a laundry list of projects with McQuarrie, and there have been rumblings for years that he’ll eventually make a sequel to the Liman sci-fi actioner “Edge of Tomorrow.”
McQuarrie had been tapped to help co-write/polish the “Top Gun: Maverick” script, and we have to assume, given “Top Gun 3” is in active development at Paramount Pictures (an assumption that Cruise will return as Maverick), that he may end up involved again there, too. He had also been creatively involved with “Sicario 3“ (the two previous films written by hot-shot Taylor Sheridan, and we expect he’ll continue that involvement) as there had been plans to reunite Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, and Emily Blunt in the second sequel.
What is known is that we’re unlikely to see the working relationship between McQuarrie and Cruise slow down anytime soon, as the creative partners seemingly haven’t soured on each other even after the hellish “Mission: Impossible” productions they just endured.
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
- Christopher Marc
