Mission: Impossible 4 to Be Reworked?
Posted 07.13.10 by Ryan
Progress on Mission: Impossible 4 has been ongoing since the project was first announced over a year ago, including a long search for a directer that ended with Brad Bird. Paramount has already moved MI:4 once, shifting the sequel from a 2011 Memorial Day weekend release to December 16, 2011. More changes might be on the way.
While each Mission: Impossible movie has had a different director, the one constant has been Tom Cruise (and, to a lesser extent, Ving Rhames), which means that the success of the franchise hinges on Cruise's popularity. Last month, Deadline speculated that Paramount "might kill" MI:4 if Cruise's latest movie, Knight and Day under-performed at the box office. After receiving mediocre reviews, Knight has only made $62 million at the box office so far, just under half of its budget.
The latest report from Deadline states that Paramount isn't likely to scrap the sequel, but may rethink the movie to include a younger operative for Cruise to mentor. According to the report, Paramount likes the script from Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, but doesn't like how badly Knight did at the box office.
With Mission: Impossible 3 tallying $397 million in worldwide box office, Paramount certainly isn't going to stop production on the sequel. The question remains, however, if MI:4 will stay the course, or receive yet another schedule change from Paramount while they rework the script.