In late February, Paramount Pictures halted production on Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible 7," which was set to shoot in Venice, Italy, this spring as the coronavirus pandemic exploded.
The studio later revealed that as the global health crisis raged on, the movie — which was slated to shoot back-to-back with "Mission: Impossible 8" — would see its release date pushed to Nov. 19, 2021, from the summer of 2021, and that the eighth installment's debut would also be pushed back, to Nov. 4, 2022.
Now a new report reveals how Tom intends to get production back on track even as COVID-19 continues to ravage the world. Just like "Mission: Impossible" character Ethan Hunt, reports Britain's The Sun, Tom has figured out a way to save the day: He, fellow producers and director Christopher McQuarrie have hatched a plan to build a village on a former U.K. military site that will allow the cast and crew to not only resume shooting but avoid contracting the coronavirus, as they'll be in a bubble as they live and work at the location, away from outsiders.
"The film has already been heavily delayed and there's no sign of things going totally back to normal any time soon, so this is a way to try to get things up and moving again quickly and safely," a source told the tabloid. According to The Sun, the "Mission: Impossible" production is taking over a former Royal Air Force site in England's Oxfordshire region and bringing in Winnebago trailers for the movie's stars, who include not just Tom but Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and more.
Tom, DailyMail.com reported in May, has been living in Britain at Scientology's U.K. headquarters during coronavirus lockdown.
The temporary village also makes sense, the source told The Sun, because "it's also tough to get hotel rooms at the moment as most of them are shut for the foreseeable future, so it was this or delay things for even longer. It will mean some of the world's biggest stars all living together in a posh campsite while working alongside the rest of the team."
It won't be cheap. "It's pricey but Tom always does things bigger and better than anyone, and there's a hell of a lot riding on this film," added the source. "The 'Mission: Impossible' movies are all massive box office successes and the studio is right behind getting this back on track."
The "Mission: Impossible" movies aren't the only Tom projects that have been delayed due to COVID-19. In early April, Paramount announced that the release of "Top Gun: Maverick," the sequel to 1986's "Top Gun" — which was scheduled to open on June 24 — had been pushed back to December. The film co-stars Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Glen Powell and more.