‘Mission: Impossible 5’ Headed To Theaters In 2015

Mission: Impossible 5 may not have a script to speak of just yet, but apparently the folks at Paramount Pictures know when they want the film ready to go.

Instead of giving moviegoers a break and pushing the next installment of the series in 2016, the studio decided to release the sequel on December 25, 2015. In case you hadn’t noticed, this is just a week after J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: Episode VII hits the big screen.

According to Variety, Mission: Impossible 5 opens on the same day that writer, director, and star Ben Affleck’s Live by Night arrives in theaters. In other words, it’s going to be a very busy month for people who absolutely love watching movies in theaters. Here’s hoping you have plenty of money to spare.

Usual Suspects and The Tourist scribe Christopher McQuarrie was recently tapped to direct the upcoming sequel. The filmmaker previously worked with Tom Cruise on the 2012 thriller Jack Reacher. McQuarrie also provided the script for Cruise’s upcoming sci-fi flick Edge of Tomorrow, which is an adaption of Hiroshi Sakurazaka’s All You Need is Kill.

The Mission: Impossible 5 star said in a statement earlier this year:

“I am thrilled to reunite with Chris for the latest installment in the Mission series. I began producing the films with the goal that a different director with his own vision would make each one. Chris is an extraordinary filmmaker who will deliver the heart-pounding action and thrills that audiences around the world have come to expect from the Mission: Impossible franchise.”

Iron Man 3 co-writer Drew Pearce is reportedly hard at work on the script for the next Mission: Impossible movie right now. Since the screenplay isn’t finished as of this writing, there’s always the possibility that the movie could get pushed into 2016.

According to Comic Book Movie, Pearce was more than a little hesitant to pen the next installment of the long-running series. The screenwriter said he was also a little intimidated by the people who previously handled scripting duties on the franchise.

Pearce told What Culture:

“I’ll hold my hands up and say that I was a little bit reticent to take [on] another sequel, because I’ve got a lot of my own original projects and I want to get them out there and kick in with directing, but the bare-faced truth of it is that I’m very much just starting out and this could all just disappear tomorrow, and I do need to get a couple of movies on the score sheet. The trouble with most things these days is that they’re just very unlikely to happen. So ‘Mission’ felt like a way of working on a franchise that I really love, plus also working on a movie that is virtually guaranteed a greenlight.”

Are you looking forward to director Christopher McQuarrie’s Mission: Impossible 5?

[Image via Paramount Pictures]