Recent reports are saying that the production of the upcoming "Mission: Impossible 5" movie has been halted, only five months before its official screening. The scoop comes from The Hollywood Reporter which revealed that the filming in London has stopped to make some revisions in the movie's finale.
One of the unnamed sources of the news outlet claimed that movie director Christopher McQuarrie was "scrambling to come up with an ending that would work." Meanwhile, another person told Hollywood Reporter that an unidentified writer has been tapped to help improve the last part. However, this third person, according to the report, "will neither be paid nor credited."
"Chris, Tom and a third person wanted to take a minute to get from what they thought was a good place to a more perfect place," the second source was quoted as saying. The source also said that Paramount is not that much concerned about the revision. If it were, then it should have not moved the movie's release date to an earlier date.
Screen Rant noted that this scenario tapping another writer to step in also happened in the upcoming James Bond movie, "Spectre." The person tapped was "Edge of Tomorrow" writer Jez Butterworth but he is not included in the movie's writers credits list. Butterworth reportedly helped "as a favor to" director Sam Mendes. Currently, "Mission: Impossible 5" has five writers -- McQuarrie; Drew Pearce, known for "Iron Man 3"; Will Staples, known for the video game "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3"; Laeta Kalogridis and Patrick Lussier, who are also the writers of the upcoming movie "Terminator: Genisys."
As a response to Hollywood Reporter's report, director McQuarrie posted a tweet on Friday, February 20, saying that they are still in production. "A shout out to @thr live from set. #MI5Diary," he said.
According to Cinema Blend, one of the potential reasons for the revision of the movie is that Tom Cruise, who plays the lead role Ethan Hunt, and the production staff might have felt the pressure of releasing a good sequel, following the success of the previous installment "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" which earned $694 million worldwide. Though there is also a possibility that they are planning to make an open-ended conclusion to make room for other potential sequels.
It has been speculated earlier that the release date of the upcoming "Mission Impossible" movie was moved to July 31, 2015, from its original Christmas Day schedule since it does not want to compete with the upcoming "Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens" movie which is set for December 18. Screen Rant noted that other movies scheduled for a December release such as "Warcraft" and "Kung Fu Panda 3" have also moved screening dates. "Sisters," starring Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, on the other hand, retains its December 2015 release date. Poehler even declared in an earlier interview that they "are going to f---ing crush Star Wars."
Aside from Tom Cruise, the cast list also includes Alec Baldwin, Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris, Simon Pegg, and Ving Rhames.