Like his old pal and collaborator Bryan Singer, Christopher McQuarrie is one of the current breed of filmmakers who has embraced social media as a way to clear up details about their work and interact directly with interested audience members. With Mission: Impossible 5 speeding towards us this year, McQuarrie carved some time out of his busy schedule to run an impromptu Q&A on the social media platform, talking about everything from speculation about the ending to the tone of the film.
Asked about the big finale for the film, which had been rumoured as rewritten and reshot, McQuarrie replied, “No. We had to prep it. Shooting it now.” But he also added, “I'm not ashamed to admit many writers have helped on this movie. Directing takes up all my time."
With regards to the film’s tone, he explained that while he and the team were aiming for something along the lines of Ghost Protocol, but that every Mission has a life of its own. Nods to the original Mission movie (and its director Brian De Palma) abound, apparently, and the feeling will be more like an episode of the TV series, shot with an “old school” approach.
McQuarrie’s Way Of The Gun/Jack Reacher composer Joe Kraemer is handling score duties again here, while some of the action scenes will be music-free.
Sean Harris is confirmed as the villain, while Jeremy Renner’s Agent Brandt and Ving Rhames will both enjoy more screen time, with Simon Pegg’s Benji said to be getting his hands “plenty dirty”. But if you were hoping for either Paula Patton or Maggie Q to show up, they were both sadly too busy to return for this one.
And, because he’s asked about it constantly, McQuarrie gave his usual response to a question about the trailer and subtitle for the movie: “soon”.
With its release date recently bumped up, McQuarrie and his crew will be racing to finish the movie ready for its July 31 date with cinemas.