Given today’s news, the most dangerous mission that Ethan Hunt and his team will have to accept in Mission: Impossible 5 won’t be facing down dangerous terrorists or clambering across high buildings: it will be surviving the crowded, box office-shredding environment that is the 2015 release schedule. The film, at least in the US, is now scheduled for December 25 of that busy year.
The implications are clear. Director Chris McQuarrie, star / producer Tom Cruise and writer Drew Pearce have a fight on their hands, particularly given that there’s a slightly anticipated sequel set to open just one week before. Yes, Hunt and his crew will be arriving shortly after Star Wars: Episode VII **jumps from light speed into cinemas.
Much of what **MI:5 **will have to offer remains classified beyond knowing the core creative team. Given that McQuarrie has been scouting UK locations and Pearce is writing it, could we see some cheeky team-ups with British security services to make the title work on another level? There has been no indication as to whether Cruise’s colleagues from Ghost Protocol – Simon Pegg, Paula Patton and Jeremy Renner – will be back, or whether **M **veteran Luther Stickell (aka Ving Rhames) will show up again.
So far, aside from that teeny tiny bit of competition, the new Mission will open in the States opposite Ben Affleck’s next planned directorial effort Live By Night. Will someone blink? Will the new film act as a festive version of the** M** concept and see Cruise scaling a giant chimney to help Santa deliver toys? All these questions (well, probably not that last one) and more will be answered soon enough…