Tradecraft: Henry Cavill Joins Mission: Impossible 6

Napoleon Solo is ditching U.N.C.L.E. for the IMF. Deadline reports that Henry Cavill has joined the cast of Mission: Impossible 6. Director Christopher McQuarrie made the announcement on Instagram before warning Cavill that "your social media account will self-destruct in 5 seconds." So apparently the actor holds no ill will against Tom Cruise for Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation crushing The Man From U.N.C.L.E. at the late summer box office in 2015. (Cruise himself was briefly attached to play Solo before dropping out due to scheduling conflicts from that M:I movie, opening the door for Hammer... who totally nailed the part.) There are no details whatsoever on what sort of part Cavill will be playing in the still untitled Mission: Impossible movies, but the trade reports that he will join "Cruise, Rebecca Ferguson, and Jeremy Renner" in the cast. If this is true, then it would seem unlikely that Cavill will be a member of Cruise's team. It was rumored that Renner might not be available for this one, but if he is on board, it seems unlikely that there are three positions on the team for handsome men of action. (Imagine if the original TV lineup had been all Peter Lupus!) So will he be a villain? An external ally? I look forward to finding out! Cavill may have lost out on James Bond to Daniel Craig, but he seems determined to make up for that by booking roles in all the other spy franchises! (Is there a part for him in the next Bourne movie...?)

Tradecraft: Vanessa Kirby Joins Mission: Impossible 6

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According to Variety, Mission: Impossible 6 has begun casting. Vanessa Kirby, who plays Princess Margaret on the Netflix hit The Crown, will play an unspecified female lead. The trade reports that the unknown role "is expected to be on the same level as [Rebecca] Ferguson’s in [Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation]." Ferguson herself, having made such a star-making impression in that movie, is also expected to return. This will be the first time in the film series that a leading lady has reprised a role in more than a cameo. According to the trade, "Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner are also expected to return, though it’s unknown in what capacity." Rogue Nation's Christopher McQuarrie will write and direct, marking another first for a franchise previously known for showcasing a different director's style each outing. McQuarrie recently said that the sixth film would explore Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt character more. That makes me a little wary. While I always loved the rare character-focused episodes of the TV series, that was because they were such anomalies. The franchise, in both film and television, is not known for deep character exploration, but for elaborate cons and, in the films, enormous action setpieces. Still, McQuarrie did an excellent job with the last movie, so I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Mission: Impossible 6 is expected to start filming sometime this spring. Cruise's next spy role, in the meantime, will be playing real-life CIA pilot Barry Seal in the Iran-Contra movie American Made (formerly known as Mena) for director Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity).

Tradecraft: Ridley Scott Ponders Prisoner Remake

That feature film Prisoner remake we've been hearing about off and on for years is still in development at Universal, and now it's attracted one of the biggest directors in the world, Ridley Scott (Blade Runner). Coming off of a huge success with the awards favorite The Martian and about to film a new Alien movie, Scott is as hot now as he's ever been. His involvement would be enough to make this movie finally happen (for better or for worse). According to Deadline, the director is in early negotiations to direct the movie version of the classic, surreal 1968 Patrick McGoohan spy series, considered by many (myself included) to be among the greatest TV series of all time. William Monahan (The Departed) has penned the latest version of the script, which Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) had previously worked on. Monahan and Scott collaborated on the Leonard DiCaprio/Russell Crowe spy movie Body of Lies in 2008, and Monahan is no stranger to adapting beloved British television cult classics to the big screen having written the feature version of Martin Campbell's Edge of Darkness. Scott got his start working on British television in the Sixties (including directing several episodes of the fabulous BBC spy series Adam Adamant Lives!) at the same time that McGoohan was starring in Danger Man and creating The Prisoner.

According to the trade, a number of A-list actors are eagerly circling the project upon Scott's involvement.

Christopher Nolan had at one time considered directing Universal's long in development Prisoner movie, but ultimately moved on. In 2009 AMC remade The Prisoner as a miniseries starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen, with highly disappointing results. Last year's Wayward Pines incorporated many elements of the original series rather more successfully. Personally, I'm not a kneejerk anti-remake reactionary, but I also can't bring myself to be more than cautiously optimistic. I think many of the themes of The Prisoner are even more relevant today than they were in 1968, and I think Ridley Scott is well equipped to handle the material, both intellectually and visually. I wish him the best; I really hope this movie turns out to be good!

UPDATED: Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Hits Blu-ray... in Annoying Multiple Versions

The fantastic Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation hits Blu-ray today... but it's hardly a clear-cut purchase. Confusingly and infuriatingly, Paramount has given it their Star Trek treatment and released several different versions as exclusives for several different retailers. As usual when the studio pulls this reprehensible crap (Paramount isn't the only offender, but they are by far the worst), they provide no convenient guide that I am aware of as to the differences between the various retailer exclusives or even how many there are. (The official website lists several versions, but provides no useful details as to content.) I'm aware of three, but if you know of others, please share in the comments.

First, there's the regular Blu-ray/DVD combo available from Amazon and other retailers with that cool cover collage. (I like that this art depicts the whole team and echoes the TV season DVD covers... though the artwork might have been even cooler had Paramount gone with the rejected painted version.) This version includes an audio commentary with star Tom Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie, 45 minutes of bonus features ("Lighting the Fuse," "Cruise Control," "Heroes…," "Cruising Altitude," "Mission: Immersible," "Sand Theft Auto," and "The Missions Continue"), and a digital copy. There is also a standalone DVD (which is absolutely bare-bones, with no extras whatsoever) and, for just twice as much as the Rogue Nation Blu-ray on its own, a 5-disc set including all the films in the series to date. (Handy if you're looking to upgrade previous entries from DVD to high-def.) I'm assuming that this set includes the same version, with the same extras, as the Blu-ray/DVD combo. UPDATE: It does. All of the discs contain the same extras as their individual releases.


On top of that, Target has an exclusive 3-disc set of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation on its own. This includes a Blu-ray, a DVD, a digital copy, and an exclusive bonus disc with "over 50 minutes of exclusive [that word again!] footage as Tom Cruise and Writer/Director Christopher McQuarrie reveal how they conceived, created and filmed the impossible stunts of Rogue Nation, including the mind-blowing airplane and underwater sequences." On top of featurettes on the stunts, it also includes featurettes on Lalo Schifrin's famous theme and composer Joe Kraemer's approach to it, on editing the spectacular opera setpiece, and on the opera itself. The exclusive featurettes are "...And Rogues" (a companion piece to "Heroes..."), "Top Crews," "Travel Agents," Opera-tion Turnadot," "Practically Impossible," "Stunts," "Variations on a Theme," and "Cut!"  I cannot yet confirm if it includes all the bonus material that's on the regular edition or not. If Paramount follow their own precedent set by Star Trek Into Darkness, then it's entirely possible that this set might be missing the commentary or some other feature found on the regular version. I will update this post as soon as I have an answer. UPDATE: I can confirm that the Target version does indeed include all of the bonus material from the standard edition, making this, in my view, the one to get. Enticingly, this Target version comes in "exclusive packaging [including a] custom book with 48 pages of production images, storyboards, and set photos taking you inside the creation of breath-taking stunts." The cover image is different, sporting the advance poster image of Cruise clinging to the side of the airplane, the film's signature stunt. (Personally I prefer the regular cover because it highlights the team aspect of the latest films in the series, harkening back to the TV show I love, rather than showcasing Cruise on his own.)

Finally, Best Buy is offering their own exclusive packaging in a Steelbook case showcasing another of the film's exciting stunt sequences, the motorcycle chase. (And, again, only Cruise.) Their website gives no indication of which extras are included (again, I will update this article when I know), but does assure us that the Steelbook contains the Blu-ray, the DVD and the digital copy. UPDATE: The Best Buy Steelbook includes all the features on the standard Blu-ray release (but not the extra ones found on the Target version). Many people like collecting Steelbook packaging, and I admit, they are nice, but I think the book with production art holds more appeal for me personally. I just wish either exclusive version came with the regular cover artwork.

Best Buy is also offering their own exclusive version of the 5-film set, with much cooler packaging, also in the Steelbook vein.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to pick the version that's right for you. Or you could try to send Paramount a message that consumers are fed up with this sort of horseshit by not buying any editions... but then, of course, you'd be missing out on owning one of the most entertaining spy movies in years. (Plus, I abstained from buying Into Darkness in outrage, and obviously the studio didn't get the message when tallying up their books and finding they were roughly $17.99 short of their expected sales goals...) But I certainly wanted to post a Buyer Beware alert before you go out and get the wrong version, and end up disappointed.

Tradecraft: McQuarrie and Ferguson to Return for Sixth Mission: Impossible?

To date, the Mission: Impossible film series has never had the same director or same leading lady twice. But now, according to Variety, both firsts are far from impossible for the next entry. The trade reports that triumphant Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation director Christopher McQuarrie and that film's stellar leading lady, Rebecca Ferguson (definitely a highlight of the picture!) are both expected to return for the next installment. One thing I've enjoyed about the film series is that, unlike the James Bond films, it's been a director's franchise to date, with clear auteur visions guiding each unique entry. Sure, that's led to clear misses like M:I-ii (John Woo's distinctive style proved a poor match for the material), but it's also led to wonderful discoveries, making the feature and live-action debuts (respectively) of J.J. Abrams and Brad Bird. That said, McQuarrie did an amazing job with Rogue Nation, and (crucially, for this fan) has shown himself to be a fan of the TV series. I think the series is in good hands with him, and I look forward to watching him top himself inthe next installment.

Second Trailer For Mision: Impossible - Rogue Nation

Paramount has released the second trailer for Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. While the first one focused on the villainous organization The Syndicate (a welcome callback to the TV series), this one focuses on Ethan Hunt's IMF team and makes it clear that as in Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, teamwork is again a priority. We're treated to snippets of the whole group working together to pull off the sort of impossible caper their TV counterparts always indulged in, though, naturally, heightened for a series known for its outrageous stunts. While Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt is point man, everyone clearly has a role to play. I like this, and I like everything I see here! (And once again those motorcycles remind me of Leonard Nimoy in the classic Season 5 episode "My Enemy My Friend," which is a plus!)

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Full Trailer and Expanded Analysis

Yesterday we saw a minute long teaser for TV and a cool poster; today we have the first full trailer for Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (formerly known only as Mission: Impossible 5). Check it out! What follows is a write-through from my commentary yesterday with a lot more to say about the longer version.



There are many, many things to love about this trailer, especially for fans of the TV series. Chief among them is that it delivers—big time!—on the tantalizing promise that concluded Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol: the big screen IMF are now taking on The Syndicate! But this isn't the organized crime Syndicate of sweaty, balding men in bad Seventies suits from the TV show. ("Syndicate" was a popular and more acceptable term than "Mafia" on television back then.) This new Syndicate was introduced (to the delight of long-term fans) at the end of the last movie as "a new terrorist group calling itself 'The Syndicate,'" and in this trailer we learn even more about it. It's the "rogue nation" of the title, an "anti-IMF" with the same extraordinary skill sets. It's so secret that the CIA haven't been able to dig up any intel on them. Or is the implication in the trailer less polite than that? Has the Syndicate infiltrated the CIA? Are they affiliated with them? This version of The Syndicate certainly seems kin to Hydra (as seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier), SPECTRE (returning for the first time since 1971 to antagonize James Bond in the next movie), KAOS (who earn a subtle verbal allusion from Alec Baldwin in the Rogue Nation trailer) and THRUSH.

With at least three of those villainous organizations active on screen this year (Hydra is set up to return in The Avengers: Age of Ultron), it's clear that evil agencies are enjoying a comeback. Why is this? Is it because of real world terrorist groups like ISIS? (In the face of actual, seemingly insurmountable evil, perhaps audiences crave acronyms that can actually be destroyed by heroes.) Or is it because of increased distrust in our own governments? (Concocting conspiracies of cabals that have infiltrated all levels of government seems preferable to admitting that giant bureaucracies are inherently fallible.) Or is it just because Marvel had huge success adapting a kind of silly SPECTRE rip-off for the big screen and making "Hail Hydra" a $700+ million cultural meme? Whatever the case, I love the idea of reviving The Syndicate in the Mission: Impossible movies. I'm a big fan of the so-called "Syndicate Seasons" from the show's later years, even though that term is really a misnomer. The Syndicate showed up as early as the very first season, and even in the last season it wasn't all organized crime; the IMF was still taking on spies and terrorists as well. And hearing Bob Johnson's tape recorded voice say "The Syndicate" dozens and dozens of times in his mission briefings for Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) conditioned me to crave it in the movies.

The Syndicate isn't the only nod to the original series in this trailer. Best of all is that this movie, like Ghost Protocol before it (but unlike the first couple of theatrical features) seems to follow the team format of the series rather than being "The Tom Cruise Show." The most obscure reference is actually to a script that was never made. The premise of dismantling the IMF comes from George Schenck's sadly unfilmed script for a TV reunion movie entitled Mission: Impossible 1980. That script opened audaciously with Jim Phelps being released from prison(!), identified as "the last of the Watergate-era criminals." He's been paying the price for, as the script puts it, "violating people's civil rights and intervening in the domestic affairs of other countries." (All of which, of course, the IMF of the TV show was most certainly guilty.) But Jim remains confident of his decisions. "Everything I did..." he explains, "everything the IMF did... I believed was for the good of the country."

"But the country convicted you!" argues a journalist. "On six counts of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping, and two counts of refusing to testify before a Congressional committee." Which all sounds an awful lot like the Alec Baldwin character's reasons for wanting to shut down the IMF in Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. Personally, I'm looking forward to seeing this interesting premise finally explored on film. All in all, this movie looks great. It clearly draws from Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Skyfall, but those are excellent sources to draw from. And their themes can be explored differently in the context of Mission: Impossible. I can't wait to see how it turns out! Based on the trailers, between this and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (and hopefully SPECTRE by the end of the week!), spy fans have quite a lot to look forward to this year.

Read my reviews of the Syndicate-heavy seasons of Mission: Impossible:

DVD Review: Mission: Impossible: The Seventh TV Season
DVD Review: Mission: Impossible: The Sixth TV Season
DVD Review: Mission: Impossible: The Fifth TV Season

Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Teaser Revives The Syndicate!

Paramount provided our first look at Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (formerly known only as Mission: Impossible 5) today, and it is awesome. This is a minute-long TV teaser, with a full trailer due to hit tomorrow. Take a look!



There are many, many things to love about this teaser, especially for fans of the TV series. Chief among them is that it delivers—big time!—on the tantalizing promise that concluded Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol: the big screen IMF are now taking on The Syndicate! But this isn't the organized crime Syndicate of sweaty, balding men in bad Seventies suits from the TV show. ("Syndicate" was a popular and more acceptable term than "Mafia" on television back then.) This new Syndicate was introduced (to the delight of long-term fans) at the end of the last movie as "a new terrorist group calling itself 'The Syndicate,'" and in this trailer we learn even more about it. It's the "rogue nation" of the title, an "anti-IMF" with the same extraordinary skill sets. This version of The Syndicate certainly seems kin to Hydra (as seen in Captain America: The Winter Soldier), SPECTRE (returning for the first time since 1971 to antagonize James Bond in the next movie), KAOS, and THRUSH.

With at least three of those villainous organizations active on screen this year (Hydra is set up to return in The Avengers: Age of Ultron), it's clear that evil agencies are enjoying a comeback. Why is this? Is it because of real world terrorist groups like ISIS? (In the face of actual, seemingly insurmountable evil, perhaps audiences crave acronyms that can actually be destroyed by heroes.) Or is it because of increased distrust in our own governments? (Concocting conspiracies of cabals that have infiltrated all levels of government seems preferable to admitting that giant bureaucracies are inherently fallible.) Or is it just because Marvel had huge success adapting a kind of silly SPECTRE rip-off for the big screen and making "Hail Hydra" a $700+ million cultural meme? Whatever the case, I love the idea of reviving The Syndicate in the Mission: Impossible movies. I'm a big fan of the so-called "Syndicate Seasons" from the show's later years, even though that term is really a misnomer. The Syndicate showed up as early as the first season (and in the second, two Syndicate episodes were stitched together for overseas release as the feature Mission Impossible vs. The Mob), and even in the last season it wasn't all organized crime; the IMF was still taking on spies and terrorists as well. And hearing Bob Johnson's tape recorded voice say "The Syndicate" dozens and dozens of times in his mission briefings for Jim Phelps (Peter Graves) conditioned me to crave it in the movies.

Based on trailers, between this and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (and hopefully SPECTRE by the end of the week!), spy fans have quite a lot to look forward to this year.

Read my reviews of the Syndicate-heavy seasons of Mission: Impossible:

DVD Review: Mission: Impossible: The Seventh TV Season
DVD Review: Mission: Impossible: The Sixth TV Season
DVD Review: Mission: Impossible: The Fifth TV Season

Christopher McQuarrie Offers Mission: Impossible Updates on Twitter

Director Christopher McQuarrie offered an impromptu Q&A on Twitter this weekend in which he revealed a number of tantalizing details about the fifth Mission: Impossible film. Collider provides a nice recap of what he revealed, but it's still worth digging through McQuarrie's tweets (#McQAndA) for some choice nuggets. As someone who appreciated the steps that Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol took to course-correct the film franchise by emulating the classic TV show, I was particularly interested in what McQuarrie had to say with regard to the original series. My number one hope for this film is that it delivers on the promise at the end of the last one to introduce frequent TV series nemesis "The Syndicate." Based on McQuarrie's responses, maybe it will! When a user asked if his movie would have the feel of a TV episode, the director answered, "Promise." When asked if he was a fan of the show and who his favorite character was, McQuarrie tweeted, "Loved the show. Morris was the man," referring to the great Greg Morris, who played electronics expert Barney Collier in all seven seasons. (Great answer! Sadly, though, the director declined to pick a favorite season.) Asked if there would be "many nods to the original like the last one" (meaning Ghost Protocol, which was packed with delightful Easter Eggs for fans of the series), McQuarrie promisingly answered, "nods to the fans abound." (He also said, separately, that there would be nods to Brian DePalma's somewhat misguided first Mission: Impossible movie, which is less promising.)

Beyond discussion of the TV show, it seems like Ghost Protocol (the series' top earner to date) is the model for the next film, which is also good news. Asked, "are you aiming for a darker tone than Ghost Protocol, or will it have the same sense of humor/fun?" the director enigmatically replied, "We were aiming for Ghost Protocol, but Mission has a life of its own and goes where it wants." Hm. Well, I'm glad they started out, at least, aiming for the somewhat lighter tone of Ghost Protocol, which I prefer. I was worried that McQuarrie's Mission might have a darker tone, like his last Cruise collaboration, Jack Reacher. I guess we'll have to wait and see to determine the true answer to that one. McQuarrie told another fan (not entirely convincingly) that previous female IMF agents from the film series Paula Patton (Ghost Protocol) and Maggie Q (M:i:III) were unavailable. (Oh well. In its way a rotating roster of female agents could be an oblique reference to the series, which followed exactly that model for Season 4 after Barbara Bain left.) The director also revealed that we can expect a subtitle and trailer (as well as official publicity stills) imminently! So, following the Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol model, they are not reverting to numbers, which is good, as M:I-5 would be too easy to confuse with the British Security Service, or the TV series Spooks which was known in America as MI-5, and also has a feature film spin-off due out this year! Finally, he confirmed that Michael Giacchino, who scored the last two movies (quite fantastically at that!) would not be returning for this installment. Instead, McQuarrie's regular collaborator Joe Kraemer (Jack Reacher, Way of the Gun) will handle the score and is "playing with something retro, of course." Kraemer doesn't have much mainstream experience outside of his work with McQuarrie, which means that along with The Man From U.N.C.L.E.'s Daniel Pemberton (whose prior work is mainly television), we'll be getting two major spy scores this year from relatively fresh voices. That should be exciting!

Now I'm just holding my breath for this trailer....

Tradecraft: Cruise's Next Mission Moved Up

The fuse has been lit early! Usually when tentpoles are dramatically shifted into another season, it's a move backwards. (See: Warner Bros.' The Man From U.N.C.L.E., which has been pushed back twice now.) But today Deadline reports that Paramount is shifting Mission: Impossible 5 up from its previously announced December berth to July 31. Yes, that's this July 31... 2015! So spy fans will get to see the movie sooner than expected. And in terms of genre competition, Ethan Hunt is retreating from James Bond's crosshairs (SPECTRE opens in November and will likely still be in theaters come Christmas) and setting the more vlunerable Napoleon Solo squarely in his own. (U.N.C.L.E. is currently slated for August.) The spacing is good and there's more than enough room for all these spy franchises to coexist... but it's still considerably safer to be the first of the biggies out of the gate than the last, since it's possible the public may burn out a little on the genre after a whopping fifteen spy movies have opened from January to December. (I hope not! And Bond, being practically a genre unto himself, seems pretty safe from such a scenario.) The most surprising thing bout seeing a major action movie shift up by five months is that post-production on these big would-be blockbusters tends to take a long time. But the movie obviously indicates that the studio is confident director Christopher McQuarrie will have all his effects shots finished in time. (This also strengthens the Mission: Impossible series' boasts about relying on practical effects and real stuntwork over time-consuming CGI.) The move means that Paramount's publicity team will have to leap into action, Tom Cruise-style, to build awareness faster than thought. It likely means we'll be seeing a poster and even a teaser trailer quite soon. (Could they even whip up something in time for next week's Super Bowl?) Assuming the effects are in good shape and the marketing folks are up to the challenge, the move makes a lot of sense for Paramount. Currently, the trade points out, the only competition in the weekend of July 31 is Warner Bros.' Point Break remake, Focus Features' sci-fi thriller Self/Less and The Weinstein Company’s Jake Gyllenhaal boxing drama Southpaw, none of which are likely to pose too big a threat to the venerable Mission juggernaut. The move kind of sucks for Point Break, though, since Cruise & Co. will probably poach the very audience its aiming for. I wouldn't be surprised to see it shuffled. The question for spy fans, of course, is what will that mean for The Man From U.N.C.L.E. if Warner Bros. starts shuffling its tentpoles again? If they'd already begun their publicity campaign, it would make sense for the studio to move it up if there's an available frame earlier in the year, but since they haven't it would be more likely to shuffle backwards... yet again. I really hope that doesn't happen.

Tom Cruise Performs More Crazy Stunts in Mission: Impossible 5

In each Mission: Impossible movie, Tom Cruise seems to like to top whatever crazy stunt he performed in the one before it. Dangling from the side of the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa, in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol seemed pretty hard to top—terrestrially, anyway. Obviously once you've scaled the tallest building, if you still want to go up, you've got to dangle from an airplane. Or at least cling to one. And that's exactly what Cruise did last month while filming in the UK. ABC News reports (with pictures and video) that the 52-year-old actor had himself strapped to the side of an Airbus A4005 and clung to fuselage of the massive transport plane as it took off and reached an altitude of 5000 feet (putting him almost twice as high off the ground as he was in Dubai) at a speed of 340mph. So, yeah, maybe that tops running down the Burj Khalifa. And earlier today, according to the London Evening Standard, he filmed a chase scene in London's Piccadilly Circus shoving his way through real crowds. Okay, so that one's not quite as death-defying, but it does sound pretty harrowing if you happened to be stuck in traffic in the area. As previously reported, Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) is directing, and Cruise is joined by returning team members Jeremy Renner (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Bourne Legacy), Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible III and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) and (per Dark Horizons) Ving Rhames (veteran of all the Mission: Impossible films to date), along with newcomers to the series Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen) and Alec Baldwin (The Hunt For Red October). Mission: Impossible 5 opens Christmas Day next year.

Additionally, The Mail Online posted this amateur video of the stunt in progress. (McQuarrie, obviously, will make it look considerably more exciting, no doubt with the aid of Lalo Schifrin's famous theme music!)

McQuarrie Tweets First Team Photo from Mission: Impossible 5

Director Christopher McQuarrie has Tweeted (via Dark Horizons) a candid shot of the latest iteration of the IMF team from the set of Mission: Impossible 5. Comprising a sort of all-star roster from the previous film entries, Jeremy Renner, Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames would be the 8x10s on Jim's desk if the movies ever did that classic TV "team selection" scene... and if the film series hadn't stupidly made Jim Phelps a traitor. (Come on, McQuarrie, please undo that misstep with a throwaway line about how the agent who assumed Phelps' name after his retirement turned out to be a real asshole or something... ideally delivered in a cameo from Martin Landau or Leonard Nimoy or Peter Lupus!) Notably absent is Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's female lead, Paula Patton. I guess the film series is emulating the TV show's fourth season, when rather than replacing Barbara Bain with another female regular, the producers opted for a guest actress each week. But the important takeaway here is that in his first photo from the set, McQuarrie has chosen to focus on the team, and not on Cruise alone! While the first three movies were mostly solo Cruise vehicles, Brad Bird's Ghost Protocol made huge strides in steering the films back in the direction of the classic show—which was always team-oriented. I hope this is a sign that McQuarrie intends to continue along a similar course. His caption would seem to indicate so!

The team is back. @Renner4Real @TomCruise @simonpegg #VingRhames #MI5Diary pic.twitter.com/ai3J6dYMaC
— ChristopherMcQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) September 11, 2014

Mission: Impossible 5 Sets Cast, Begins Filming in Austria

The cast is coming together for Mission: Impossible 5, and we've got our first notion of what Tom Cruise's hair will look like (always the biggest question as an M:I movie gears up for production) thanks to a photo of the actor scouting locations. Austrian paper The Local (via Dark Horizons) published this picture. They report that the age defying star/producer was up on the roof of Vienna's State Opera House, where he'll be shooting an action scene at night. (Austria is fast becoming the location for spies to attend operas; James Bond also spent a night at the opera in that country in Quantum of Solace's most memorable scene.) Cameras start rolling on Saturday.

In his fifth outing as IMF superspy Ethan Hunt, Cruise is joined by returning team members Jeremy Renner (Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Bourne Legacy), Simon Pegg (Mission: Impossible III and Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol) and (per Dark Horizons) Ving Rhames (veteran of all the Mission: Impossible films to date), along with newcomers to the series Rebecca Ferguson (The White Queen) and Alec Baldwin (The Hunt For Red October). Deadline reports that Baldwin will play the Director of the CIA. Swedish actress Ferguson is still a relatively fresh face, but I was quite impressed by her in this summer's Hercules and look forward to her spy debut! Her role is as yet unknown.

Mission: Impossible 5 will also shoot in London, where the Houses of Parliament themselves are rumored to be a possible filming location. As previously reported, Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) is directing, and he's got his work cut out for him if he wants his film to live up to the benchmark set by Brad Bird with the fourth film, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (by far the best entry in the film series to date). Personally, I'm hoping McQuarrie continues in the promising direction Bird pointed the franchise, making the films more like the classic television series. While the first three films were largely star vehicles for Cruise, Ghost Protocol truly felt like a team movie, a hallmark of the series. It was also packed with clever references to the show, and even established the TV IMF's longtime nemesis The Syndicate (re-dressed as a terrorist organization instead of the mob) as a potential enemy in the fifth film. I hope that comes to pass! While previous films in the series have gone by the shorthand "M:I-2" or "M:I-iii," this one will have to find a different moniker. (Hopefully it will get its own subtitle like Ghost Protocol.) Not only is MI5 the name of the British internal Security Service, but in America it's also the title of the TV series about that service that was known as Spooks in the UK. And Spooks has its own movie coming out soon, which will also presumably utilize the MI-5 title on this side of the pond. None of that, however, has stopped McQuarrie from hashtagging his Tweets "#MI5Diary."

Tradecraft: Bourne and Mission: Impossible Sequels Get New Writers

Two major spy franchises (both of which starred Jeremy Renner in their most recent entries) hired new writers in the last week. The Hollywood Reporter reports (in separate stories) that Justin Lin's Bourne Legacy sequel and Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible 5 have each gained new scribes. Andrew Baldwin, who wrote the forthcoming Idris Elba neo-Eurospy movie Bastille Day, has been brought on to rewrite Anthony Peckham's draft of the sequel to the Jeremy Renner spinoff of the Matt Damon trilogy. (Yup, it's a sequel to a spinoff, at least two degrees removed from the terrific Robert Ludlum source material, but presumably it will still have the name "Bourne" in the title... which is just kind of awkward at this point. They should just go ahead and call it what it is: The Bourne Continuation.) It was previously reported that Justin Lin, the man who revitalized the Fast & Furious franchise, would helm the movie. Hopefully he, Baldwin and Peckham will manage to improve on Tony Gilroy's lackluster Bourne Legacy.

Meanwhile, Will Staples has been tapped to do a pass on Mission: Impossible 5, on which Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3) had previously done a draft. According to the trade, Staples' background is mostly in scripting videogames, but he's also got several film scripts in development, including King of Heists, to which Jeremy Renner is attached to star. (Does the Renner connection indicate that the actor will reprise his William Brandt role from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol? That's probably reading too deeply into Staples' hiring, but I'd certainly like to see Brandt return.) McQuarrie signed on to direct the fifth entry in the long-running Tom Cruise film series last year. He, Pearce and Staples have their work cut out for them if they hope to top Ghost Protocol, which was by far my favorite Mission: Impossible movie to date. Here's a hint, Will: do what Brad Bird did and look to the TV show for inspiration! Mission: Impossible 5 is set to open on Christmas Day next year.

Simon Pegg Returns for Another Mission

We have our second confirmed team member for Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible 5 (following last May's obvious announcement that Tom Cruise would once again star as Ethan Hunt). When asked by MTV (via Dark Horizons) if he'd be back for a third round as IMF agent Benji Dunn (Pegg debuted in the franchise's third installments), Pegg enthusiastically replied, "Yes, absolutely! I'm looking forward to that. I've already started eating one carrot a day in order to be in shape." Great! I really hope that McQuarrie brings back as many of the team members from Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol as possible. That was the first film in the theatrical franchise that actually did a decent job of capturing the team dynamic that made the TV show so great.

Tradecraft: Christopher McQuarrie Feels No Remorse

No, I don't mean that Christopher McQuarrie feels no remorse about casting Tom Cruise as the 6'5" Jack Reacher in the eponymous film version of Lee Child's popular hero (though he doesn't seem to); I mean that, according to Deadline, the Usual Suspects scribe has been hired by Paramount to take a crack at adapting Tom Clancy's seemingly uncrackable 1993 novel Without Remorse. This one's been in development for nearly twenty years now, with Shawn Ryan most recently givng it a go a few years ago. It's not clear if McQuarrie will rewrite Ryan's draft (which was said to be good), or start from scratch. McQuarrie will direct as well as write. Without Remorse follows Jack Ryan's "dark side" Mr. Clark (aka John Kelly) in his formative years during the Vietnam War on both a covert mission abroad and a personal vendetta in the United States. While McQuarrie's aesthetic would lend itself perfectly to a gritty 70s period piece, I doubt we'll see the studio go that direction. After all, they're rebooting the Jack Ryan franchise in a contemporary setting, so if they want to eventually integrate Clark into that series, it would behoove them to set this movie in the present as well.

TRADECRAFT: TIMOTHY DALTON SPIES AGAIN!!!

TRADECRAFT: TIMOTHY DALTON SPIES AGAIN!!!

So you know that movie The Tourist that I keep blogging about, and that I'm pretty darned excited for already?  The one with the long and winding road to production?  Various writers have worked on the script; various directors have been attached at various times before one of the most exciting directors working today, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, director of the supurb Oscar-winning spy movie The Lives of Others, landed the gig.  And, of course, various stars have been attached, including, at one time or another, Tom Cruise, Charlize Theron and that guy from Avatar, before ending up with the two biggest stars in the world, Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp.  How could this romantic spy thriller become any more exciting?  Well, I'm sure the huge title of this post tells you how: Variety reports that Timothy Dalton has now joined the cast!  That's right, the former James Bond (one of the best) will be in another spy movie–and one with an illustrious pedigree.  I always root for Dalton (who just celebrated his 64th birthday this week), and always hope to see him in more bigscreen roles.  (With the very notable exception of his scene-stealing turn in Hot Fuzz, he's been frustratingly absent from cinemas for a long while.)  And now he looks set to be making a very big return this year, with a role opposite these two huge box-office draws and his voice in this year's Pixar release.  (He'll be Mr. Pricklypants, a stuffed hedgehog thespian, in Toy Story 3.) 

Along with Dalton, another Bond veteran is also joining the cast of The Tourist.  Steven Berkoff, who played the villainous General Orlov in Octopussy (and toured with an excellent one-man stage show of Shakespeare's greatest villains), will have a role as well.  The two Bond alum join Paul Bettany and Rufus Sewell as well as Depp and Jolie.  According to the trade, "The Tourist, penned by Julian Fellowes & Christopher McQuarrie and Jeffrey Nachmanoff, centers on an American tourist visiting Italy to mend a broken heart who pursues a romance with a woman who deliberately crosses his path. The couple's then caught in a whirlwind of intrigue and danger."

Tradecraft: Red Signals Tourists

Tradecraft: Red Signals Tourists

The Tourist

Boy, that movie The Tourist has had one of the most convoluted roads to production of any recent spy film! Here's a brief recap with links to the relevant posts: In mid-2008, The Hollywood Reporter reported that superstar Tom Cruise had "entered into negotiations" to star in The Tourist, a remake of the 2005 French thriller Anthony Zimmer. Frequent MI-5 (Spooks) director Bharat Nalluri was set to direct from a script by Gosford Park screenwriter Julian Fellowes. A few months later, Variety reported that Charlize Theron was attached to play "a female Interpol agent who uses an American tourist in an attempt to flush out an elusive criminal with whom she once had an affair." Cruise remained attached as well, and shortly thereafter brought in his own favorite script doctor Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Valkyrie) to rewrite the script. McQuarrie was simultaneously tailoring a few other projects for Cruise, including Guillermo Del Toro's draft of The Champions, a remake of a cult classic ITC spy show from the Sixties. (I pray that that project is still alive!) When Cruise became attached to the Robert Ludlum spy film The Matarese Circle this past February, Variety asserted that The Tourist was still expected to be his next project. Then in May Cruise surprised everyone by selecting yet another spy movie as his next project instead, opting to co-star with Cameron Diaz in what was then known as Wichita, and is now called Knight & Day. Was he still involved with The Tourist? At the time, Variety thought it possible that he might still do it "down the line," but by August it became clear that wasn't the case; The Hollywood Reporter reported that Terminator: Salvation and Avatar star Sam Worthington had been selected to replace him. Theron remained attached... up until last month, anyway, when she bowed out only to be replaced by Angelina Jolie, who had previously come aboard another spy movie that Cruise had abandoned, Salt. Cruise and Theron had been replaced over the course of a year and a half, at different times, by Jolie and Worthington. And, quite excitingly, Jolie brought with her The Lives of Others director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. (It's unclear when Nalluri left.) Now the project in perpetual flux has encountered still further changes!

Today, Variety reports that Worthington is out, along with von Donnersmarck (aww!), both exiting over "creative differences." Now another superstar on par with Cruise is in talks to star opposite Jolie: Johnny Depp. Additionally, "directors including Alfonso Cuaron are already circling" the long-gestating project. And Jeffrey Nachmanoff has done yet another rewrite on the script. The star wattage would certainly be high with Depp and Jolie. It sounds like a cool pairing to me. But will this one finally stick? It will be interesting to see...

Red

In other news, The Hollywood Reporter reports that the cast for Red, Summit's adaptation of a Wildstorm/DC comic book, is filling out. The trade offers a quick refresher on the premise: "It's the tale of a former black-ops agent (Bruce Willis), now in retirement, who has to contend with younger, more high-tech assassins who show up to kill him." As well as Willis, Morgan Freeman has long been attached. Earlier this week, Hellen Mirren joined the cast as a fellow assassin, and now John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker have also come aboard. According to the trade, "Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him [and] Parker would play the romantic interest, a federal pension worker who becomes embroiled in the Willis character's struggle to stay alive." I've never read (or even heard of) this comic book, but the movie seems to be shaping up quite nicely with this cast. It seems like one to keep an eye on.

Signals

In a big day for spy news, The Hollywood Reporter also reports that Taken and From Paris With Love director Pierre Morel has signed on to direct a thriller called Signals. Since the logline is being kept under wraps, it's not entirely clear that this is a spy movie, but it sounds that way from the few clues that are given: "[Richard] Potter and [Matthew] Stravitz's contemporary story line is secret but is expected to take on the tone of a 1970s-era paranoid thriller like Three Days of the Condor. Morel, a former camera operator and cinematographer, spun similarly gritty material with Taken's kidnapping/revenge plot." The runaway success of Taken has put Morel in high demand. Earlier this year he became attached to Pursuit, a Ludlumesque thriller for Captivate Entertainment, the company built on Robert Ludlum's library of titles. He's also attached to an untitled Tokyo-set spy thriller for Paramount.

Tradecraft: Cruise Still Championing Champions

Tradecraft: Cruise Still Championing Champions

Variety today has an article that provides an overview of the many, many projects that Tom Cruise has attached himself to lately–most of them spy movies. Five different studios are trying to get the actor to commit to their films. While most of these have been covered previously on the Double O Section, the article does mention one new relevant project in which Cruise would play "an undercover agent who gets thrown together with a woman who has man trouble." That movie, Wichita, is being eyed as a possible team-up with Cameron Diaz. The article also recaps old information on The Matarese Circle and The Tourist, as well as mentioning Cruise's possible involvement with Motorcade (the Secret Service thriller written by Breach's Billy Ray). While the star is attached to all of them, he isn't yet firmly committed to any. The most interesting bit, however, pertains to the long-percolating bigscreen revival of the ITC cult classic The Champions:

Studios expect that Cruise will do two films this year, and while some questioned his enthusiasm for finding a big project, sources said that he will likely star next year in The Champions, a feature adaptation of the British TV series about a team of government agents rescued from a plane crash in the Himalayas by an advanced civilization and given superhuman abilities.

[Christopher] McQuarrie is writing that project, and producing it with Guillermo del Toro, who originated it with intentions to direct before he committed five years of his life to two Hobbit films for MGM and New Line.

Interesting! I'd speculated that Cruise's interest in The Matarese Circle precluded his involvement in The Champions, but apparently not. In fact, the Variety article makes that one sound like the closest to a sure thing! I've definitely come around on the idea. Cruise even looks appropriately like Stuart Damon. I'm very excited for that one, so I hope it happens!

Schreiber Salted

Meanwhile, Daniel Craig's Defiance co-star and former Mr. Clark Liev Schreiber has come aboard a high-profile project famous for not starring Tom Cruise: Salt. Formerly titled Edwin A. Salt, Cruise had been attached to this project in the title role for quite a while. But he dropped out late last year only to be replaced by Angelina Jolie (which obviously necessitated a change in the character's first name and title). Variety reports that "Schreiber will play Salt's boss and friend on the Russian desk at the CIA." For those who haven't been paying attention, the trade also provides a nice recap: "The story centers on Evelyn Salt, a CIA officer who is fingered as a Russian sleeper spy. She eludes capture by superiors who are convinced she is out to assassinate the president. While trying to reunite with her family, she struggles to prove someone else is the traitor." Without knowing anything more than that (and therefore not in a position to provide any real spoilers–so don't worry and take this with a grain of, ahem, salt), I predict that Schreiber turns out to be the traitor!

WB to Distribute Darkness

Variety also reports that Warner Bros. has acquired North American distribution rights to Martin Campbell's bigscreen remake of Edge of Darkness. Campbell (Goldeneye, Casino Royale) directed the original British mini-series, which followed a detective (Bob Peck) getting caught up in a conspiracy involving the security services while investigating the death of his daughter, and he's also directing the movie, which stars Mel Gibson.

Tradecraft: Champions And Clancy... And Some Tourism

Tradecraft: Champions And Clancy... And Some Tourism

Championing Tom Cruise

Well, I suppose it was bound to happen. Since Guillermo Del Toro's bigscreen remake of the Sixties ITC cult classic The Champions is set up at Tom Cruise's studio, United Artists, it was probably only a matter of time before the star attached himself to the project. And that's probably a good thing, as it will give the project a much better chance of actually getting made. And Cruise does look a little bit like Stuart Damon, if you squint... (Though Damon's Adventurer co-star Gene Barry would probably point out that Damon is a good deal taller than Cruise!) But I'm not sure he's right for the part. And he's already got his own spy franchise! But I'm willing to give the star the benefit of the doubt, and I'd rather see a Tom Cruise Champions than no Champions at all. The other big news in Variety's story is that Cruise's go-to writer, Valkyrie scribe Christopher McQuarrie is doing a rewrite on Del Toro's script. Here's what the trade says:

McQuarrie also is writing and producing with Guillermo del Toro the previously announced United Artists project The Champions, penning the script with an eye toward hammering it into a Cruise vehicle. The British TV series transfer concerns a team of government agents rescued from a plane crash in the Himalayas by an advanced civilization and given superhuman abilities.
MGM brass has long felt that the project was UA's strongest chance for a big-ticket franchise vehicle that could star UA co-owner Cruise.

The same article reports that McQuarrie is also polishing up the other spy movie Cruise is currently eyeing to potentially star in, The Tourist:

The Cruise-McQuarrie collaboration with the most urgency is Spyglass espionage drama The Tourist. McQuarrie is rewriting for Cruise to star with Charlize Theron in the Bharat Nalluri-directed remake of the 2005 French thriller "Anthony Zimmer." Julian Fellowes originally scripted the redo.

Cruise just can't stop spying! (Not that I blame him.)

Jack Ryan Version 4.0

Meanwhile, Paramount is at it again with their unceasing attempts to revitalize their long-dormant spy franchise based on Tom Clancy's CIA analyst character, Jack Ryan. Most recently Sam Raimi was tipped to shepherd the newest incarnation of Ryan (played in the past by Alec Baldwin, Harrison Ford and Ben Affleck), and before him Fernando Meirelles. Everyone from Ford to Ryan Gosling has been rumored to star. Now The Hollywood Reporter reports that the studio has hired The Wings of the Dove and Four Feathers screenwriter Hossein Amini to tackle a new Jack Ryan movie. After so many false starts at reviving this franchise, forgive me if I remain skeptical until this sucker actually starts rolling! While producer Mace Neufeld remains involved, there's no word yet on a director, but Raimi is definitely out of the picture because "his packed schedule made his involvement unworkable."