MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 6 Production Delayed As Tom Cruise Recovers From Injury; Release Still Set For Next Summer

On Sunday, news broke that superstar Tom Cruise had been injured on the set of Mission: Impossible 6 while performing a stunt and now, Variety is reporting that Paramount Pictures has officially decided to stop production for six weeks to possibly three months to give Cruise ample time to recover. 

Despite the production delay, the film is still expected to meet its July 2018 release date and it's believed that the film could still wrap on time if the team shifts their focus to post-production elements and postpone any scenes with Cruise until the end of the shoot. However, the delay may lead to another complication in the near future as co-stars Rebecca Ferguson (The Snowman), Simon Pegg (Ready Player One), and Henry Cavill (Justice League) all currently have other projects lined up to start filming as soon as Mission: Impossible 6 wraps. There is also some concern amongst studio heads that Cruise's injury may affect the shooting schedule for his eagerly awaited Top Gun sequel, which is expected to start filming next spring and already has a July 2019 release date attached.

The studio has issued the following statement, officially announcing the halt in production: “During production on the latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ film, Tom Cruise broke his ankle while performing a stunt. Production will go on hiatus while Tom makes a full recovery, and the film remains on schedule to open July 27, 2018. Tom wants to thank you all for your concern and support and can’t wait to share the film with everyone next summer.”

In a separate interview with Empire, director Chris McQuarrie shed more light on what actually happened and what their plan is moving forward. He started off by assuring fans that Cruise was doing well after breaking his right ankle, "Tom is great. He’s in very good spirits. He’s feeling great about the movie. Very excited in general. When I went to see him, the first thing he said when I walked in the room was, ‘dude, my ankle’s broken’. Without missing a beat, I said, ‘there’s a silver lining to this cloud. We just don’t know what it is yet.’"

McQuarrie revealed that there were about seven or eight weeks left of filming, so that means there is still quite a lot left to film, including one sequence with Cruise that is unsurprisingly being described as "really intense." He says the hiatus length has yet-to-be determined as the team continues to assess what has already been filmed and what still needs to get done, but McQuarrie does believe the release date will not be affected, which should be good news for fans of the blockbuster action franchise.

As for what really happened during the stunt, it appears as though Cruise was always meant to hit the side of the building and actually completed the exhilarating

"The speculation was that Tom had somehow missed or fell short. The truth is that the stunt was never designed for Tom to jump from rooftop to rooftop which a) would have been pretty boring and b) when you see the actual shot you’ll understand how it was designed. Also, when you look at what was posted on the internet, you can see Tom do the same stunt multiple times. He was always supposed to slam into the side of the building. That’s what gives the stunt its energy. He was completely safe the entire time he was doing that. He was padded. What happened is a matter of coordinating what Tom is doing with what the camera is doing, which means you have to do it a number of times. 

And on the fourth try, he hit the building at a slightly different angle and he broke his ankle. He knew the instant that he hit the building that his ankle was broken. You can see it on his face. We had four cameras rolling on it, and you can see it on the video that’s on the internet. He knew in that instant, ‘well, we’re not coming back here. We’re not doing this again today’. So he got up and powered through the shot, and then he got off-camera and as soon as he knew he was off-camera he went down. He knew that was the only way to preserve the shot. I don’t know that I would have the wherewithal to do that."

What went through your mind when you realised what had happened?

"When we all watched it, none of us immediately realised what was happening on the monitor. Tom got up and hobbled off-camera and we looked at it and went, wow, he really sold that one. It looks like that hurt. It turns out him breaking an ankle is almost indistinguishable from him pretending to break an ankle. My immediate concern was, how is Tom? What is the extent of his injury? Today, we got the full prognosis and found out that it was actually fine, could have been much worse. And everything was ok. I’m not at all concerned about what this is going to do to our release date. The good news is, Tom is going to make a full recovery."

In 2018, Ethan Hunt returns for his sixth impossible mission.