The relationship between actor Tom Cruise and screenwriter/director Christopher McQuarrie goes back to “Valrykie” (2008), and they’ve been nearly inseparable ever since. Even if McQuarrie isn’t directing the project, he’s either writing it or rewriting it (sometimes during production, such as “Edge Of Tomorrow”). And in some cases, writing, exec-producing, and even guiding it through post-production (see “Top Gun: Maverick,” which has earned a massive $1.3 billion at the global box office and McQuarrie was very involved with). They’ve been working together on the next two “Mission: Impossible” films pretty much concurrently (see the recent Light The Fuse podcast where McQuarrie reveals they’re essentially shooting both of them now), but that won’t be the last movie they make in their partnership.
A new report from Deadline outlines three separate projects they are currently trying to put together. One is the previously-teased “gnarlier” action film that could become another franchise for the duo, another is an original song-and-dance musical, and the third is very different. It’s something that would see Cruise’s return to his foul-mouthed, short-tempered Les Grossman studio-exec character from Ben Stiller’s Oscar-nominated Hollywood satire “Tropic Thunder.”
Cruise has been trying to make a Les Grossman film for years, and the writer of “Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World” was hired to pen a script in 2010, but nothing seemingly came out of it. Deadline says it’s unknown if they will “create a whole movie around Grossman, or borrow him for inclusion in either of the other vehicles.”
Another looming project in the works is a film that plans to shoot in space from director Doug Liman, who is also trying to put together a direct sequel to “Edge of Tomorrow” that hasn’t come together. While many have championed a third “Top Gun” movie online, Paramount and the team haven’t indicated they’re interested in doing that so far.
McQuarrie and Cruise’s next two films will be “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1,” released on July 14, 2023, and “Dead Reckoning 2,” which arrives on June 28, 2024.