Tradecraft: Christopher McQuarrie Sought for Cruise's Next Impossible Mission

Alright! Finally, some juicy Mission: Impossible 5 rumors! After Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol turned out to be far and away the best film in the franchise and grossed close to $700 million worldwide, I'm surprised it's taken this long for news on a follow-up. Today, Deadline reports that Paramount, Cruise and producer J.J. Abrams are all keen for The Usual Suspects screenwriter Christopher McQuarrie to direct the film. McQuarrie's fast becoming Paramount's go-to spy guy, as he's already attached to the Tom Clancy adaptation Without Remorse, which details the origins of "Jack Ryan's dark side," the deadly wetworks operative John Clark. (Tom Hardy has been rumored to star in that project.) I'd be more encouraged about McQuarrie's involvement if his upcoming Cruise-starring directorial effort, Jack Reacher, looked better. But the studio obviously likes what they've seen, so maybe there's something there that's not coming across in the trailers. To be fair, the more recent one was a vast improvement over the first one! And another point in McQuarrie's favor is that, according to the trade blog, he had an uncredited hand in Ghost Protocol's top-notch script. I just really, really hope that he continues the bright palette and clearly-filmed action sequences Bird brought to the franchise... and most of all that he continues the closer connection to the TV show established in the last installment! (Including the emphasis being on a team rather than an individual agent.)