As Tom Cruise gears up to begin production on the eighth installment in his blockbuster Mission: Impossible franchise, which is expected to begin filming in South Africa in a few weeks, a new report has provided some insight into what the 3x Academy Award-nominated actor might be planning for 2023 - a year that is expected to take him to space!
After Space Entertainment Enterprise, a company that has previously stated that it will be co-producing Cruise's upcoming space movie, recently revealed their plans to build what is essentially a movie studio in space by December 2024, Variety followed up on the lofty claim, and learned more about Cruise's planned space movie in the process, including how much of the film will actually take place outside of the Earth's atmosphere.
According to their source at Universal Pictures, S.E.E.'s plans to build a studio in space has no connection to Cruise's upcoming movie, which is still very much in development. With Cruise having wrapped Mission: Impossible 7 last year and scheduled to finish Mission: Impossible 8 before the end of this calendar year, the studio is currently expecting him to commence principal photography on the $200 million-plus untitled space production in early 2023.
Universal is currently awaiting director Doug Liman (Edge of Tomorrow; American Made) and producer Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible - Fallout; Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation) to deliver the screenplay, which will presumably happen sometime in the coming months. While details have been murky since the venture was initially announced nearly two years ago, the trade has confirmed that Cruise will only shoot part of the film aboard the International Space Station, with the majority of the project being filmed on Earth. Additional footage is also expected to be shot on a rocket.
As previously reported, the project will not be a sci-fi tale, but will instead be a straight action/adventure story. The plot will follow a down-on-his-luck guy (Cruise), who suddenly finds himself in the unique position of being the only person that can save Earth.
With production tentatively scheduled for 2023, if everything goes according to plan, there's a strong possibility we could see this insanely ambitious movie finally grace our silver screen sometime in 2024.
In the meantime, Cruise can be seen next in Top Gun: Maverick on May 27, 2022. Then, he'll light the fuse with Mission: Impossible 7 on July 14, 2023 and Mission: Impossible 8 on June 28, 2024.