Tom Cruise to resume shooting ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ in UK

PTI, Dec 30, 2020, 10:38 AM IST

Los Angeles: Hollywood star Tom Cruise is back in the UK after a Christmas break in the US and will soon resume shooting for ”Mission: Impossible 7” in the country, but with a change in set location.

The seventh instalment in the popular spy action film franchise, which was previously being filmed at Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden, will now shift production to Longcross Film Studios.

According to Variety, Longcross is in Surrey in southeast England and falls within Tier 4 (the highest level of restrictions). Productions at the studio, however, are allowed to continue under strict COVID-19 protocols.

”Mission: Impossible 7”, directed by Christopher McQuarrie, is expected to complete principal photography at Longcross.

Longcross used to be a UK Ministry of Defence site used to test army tanks, but has since been redeveloped as a shooting location, housing blockbuster productions including ”Skyfall” and ”Guardians of the Galaxy.” Most recent productions at Longcross include ”The King’s Man,” ”Artemis Fowl” and ”Death on the Nile.”

During the film’s last schedule, at Warner Bros Studios, Leavesden, Cruise lashed out at the crew over lapses in COVID-19 protocols.

”I’m on the phone with every f***ing studio at night, insurance companies, producers and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies. We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf***ers. I don’t ever want to see it again. Ever!” Cruise shouted at the offending unit members, a video clip of which was recorded and leaked to the media earlier this month.

The UK is ”back in the eye of the storm,” Sir Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS, said on Tuesday as the country’s health chiefs warned that hospitals were being overwhelmed by a surge in the COVID-19 pandemic, largely driven by a new highly transmissible variant of the novel coronavirus, which has seen clinic admissions surpass the first peak.

According to the figures from National Health Service (NHS) England, 20,426 patients were being treated in hospitals on Monday, compared to 18,974 recorded on April 12 during the first peak of the pandemic this year.

”Mission: Impossible 7” was one of the first film projects to be adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In February, filming on the latest instalment had to be stopped in Italy due to the disease outbreak in the country. The movie was scheduled to be shot for three weeks in Venice but the plans were put on hold.

Production resumed in September, with filming taking place in Italy and Norway before moving to London in early December.

The film also features Ving Rhames, Henry Czerny, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett, Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, and Esai Morales.

The Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media film is scheduled to be released on November 19, 2021.