It was back in the summer that actor Tom Cruise went public with the news of an upcoming sixth installation of the Mission: Impossible franchise now in development. That update came in the good graces of this summer’s box office hit, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, which accumulated nearly $700 million dollars following its July 31 release, and not for nothing either.
Paramount Pictures and Skydance are clearly thriving off of the franchise and doing so in a way that allows it to grow further beyond its films, with a storyline that continues to evolve and achieve tenfold in the years since its origins as a television series. Cruise is at the center of it all as a secret superspy dodging close calls at every corner with the help of a loyal few while battling some of the world’s worst of the worst, and even when a few wildcards tend to factor in the upheavel, which also leads to the genius casting of actress Rebecca Ferguson who, while yet a new female face among others in the franchise, delivered one of the most solid and physically commanding performances ever seen in an action film.
Clearly, director Christopher McQuarrie knew what he was doing with this film as it played on virtually all the right notes to hand audiences a fantastic entry into the superspy action subgenre and the numbers spoke for themselves all the same. Evidently for this, the studio is very well on the way to getting McQuarrie back in the director’s chair with the likelihood that Ferguson, and franchise actors Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames may hopefully return as well, which makes the first time a director will be getting a second go at the Mission: Impossible franchise following Brian DePalma, John Woo, J.J. Abrams and Brad Bird.
McQuarrie previously directed Cruise’s 2012 action thriller, Jack Reacher, which for which he also wrote helmer Ed Zwick’s sequel already underway. Clearly there’s a pattern here and a good sign of great things to come for McQuarrie and Cruise even as we sit and wait to learn just how the two plan to antee up the riveting action, danger and excitement for number six.
Will it be Ethan Hunt’s last impossible mission as so hyped in teasers before? Will another hero…or heroine…take the torch? Who knows?
H/T: Variety