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Thursday
19Mar2009

Tom Cruise Working on 'Mission: Impossible 4'

DateThursday, March 19, 2009 at 4:04AM
Is Tom Cruise working on Mission: Impossible 4? If you ask Cruise, the answer is yes. Or at least it is on Japanese TV.

An Ain't It Cool News reader passed along the story that Cruise was appearing on the Japanese program SMAP SMAP and the subject of the M:I franchise came up. If you'll recall, the second Mission made the most money and the third - while probably the most consistently entertaining of the three - was hardly a big success for Paramount. It cost the most and made $200 million less than its predecessor. That had as much to do with a backlash against Cruise and TomKat as it did anything else.

But he seems intent on giving the Ethan Hunt Experience another try, telling SMAP SMAP that he has already begun work on the story for part four, and he even mentioned the possibility of doing one of those showstopping international action scenes in downtown Tokyo.

So who's going to make this movie? Paramount? I guess they call the shots on this one, but they'd have to be at least cautious if not completely gun shy. Valkyrie did decent business, particularly internationally, but that has a much lower threshold of success and failure than a summer blockbuster. Could Cruise maybe finance it or co-finance it through his own studio, United Artists? I'm not sure what that would look like, but if I'm Paramount, that's an even less attractive offer than handling it outright.

About the only way it could work - and it's already a tired practice - is to do the lo-fi, gadget-free spy thing. It would save tremendously on production costs and it would give the franchise a gritty overhaul, the kind it would need to stay competitive with Bourne and Bond.

I get why Cruise wants to do this. It is, after all, the only franchise he's attached himself to. But even though the third one was a little disappointing financially, the odds that they'll make a better one the fourth time around aren't very good.

AuthorColin Boyd | | in , , | Print ArticlePrint Article | | Comment2 Comments |

Reader Comments (2)

I found M:I 3 to be one of the best action movies of the year back in '06. It is certainly better than the previous M:I's. Upon repeat viewing it holds up, and I wouldn't mind seeing a 4th. I think the series deserves another look, simply because so many people ignored the 3rd and best one.

Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Unregistered CommenterJeremy

I agree with you about the third one and in theory I wouldn't mind a fourth. I don't know if the bean counters feel the same, to say nothing of the many, many people who skipped number three.

Thursday, March 19, 2009 | Registered CommenterColin Boyd

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