‘Mission Impossible 5’ Gets New Director

Mission Impossible 5 has landed a new director in Christopher McQuarrie of The Way Of The Gun and Jack Reacher fame, according to a Monday report from Deadline.

The website noted that McQuarrie was being eyed to direct the fifth installment of the popular series in November 2012. At that time, Paramount and Skydance Productions had nothing to go on regarding McQuarrie’s chemistry directing star Tom Cruise.

That was before Jack Reacher hit theaters in December 2012 and managed to gross a decent $216 million worldwide take before the film finally left theaters, according to the numbers at Box Office Mojo.

Most of Jack Reacher’s audience came from overseas, though it did manage to eke out a $20 million profit domestically.

Tom Cruise confirmed that he would be returning to the franchise during an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in April.

“I started Mission Impossible hoping I could make many of them,” Cruise said. “It’s a character that I can grow with. At that time it was the most expensive film in the history of Paramount Pictures, and the first film I was producing. It’s been pretty exciting. Seeing an audience respond… to have that experience is really wonderful. I’ll make a bunch of those. I’ll make as many as people want to see… because they’re very challenging, and so much fun to make.”

Mission Impossible — Ghost Protocol was aptly directed by Pixar breakout Brad Bird and managed to gross an impressive — especially for this point in Cruise’s post-couch jumping/pro-Scientology career — $694 million worldwide on a budget of just $145 million.

(It also dropped the numeral from the title. No word on whether Mission Impossible 5 will do the same.)

These things have been consistent money-makers for Cruise so it’s not a surprise he would return to the role of Ethan Hunt, IMF agent capable of doing the impossible.

Mission Impossible 5 will hit theaters in 2015, along with about a zillion other sequels, remakes, and reboots. Will you be watching?