Paramount Shuts Down ‘Mission: Impossible’ Set Due to Positive COVID Test Results

Ryan Lattanzio
·2 min read
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Filming in the United Kingdom on Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible 7” has been shut down due to positive COVID-19 test results that surfaced during routine testing, a Paramount Pictures representative has confirmed to IndieWire.

In a statement, the studio said, “We have temporarily halted production on ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ until June 14, due to positive coronavirus test results during routine testing. We are following all safety protocols and will continue to monitor the situation.”

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Reports began to emerge out of The Sun that filming was shut down at Longcross Studios in Chertsey, Surrey, where Tom Cruise and the crew have been filming the seventh installment of the long-running espionage franchise. That report said Tom Cruise was in self-isolation. IndieWire has reached out to Cruise’s own representatives for comment.

This is at least the third COVID-related delay for “Mission: Impossible 7,” which is now scheduled to be released from Paramount on May 27, 2022, followed by a streaming release on Paramount Plus in July 2022. Filming was first shut down in Italy in March 2020, with stunt rehearsals beginning in Surrey, England three weeks later before a hiatus. Filming resumed in September, but was halted again after 12 people tested positive for the virus. In December 2020, while filming in London, an audio recording of Cruise shouting at crew members for breaking COVID-19 protocols surfaced online.

Cruise went on to defend his comments, which quickly went viral. “I said what I said,” Cruise told Empire in a recent interview, clarifying that he did not shout in front of the “entire crew” and only addressed the “select people” who were directly involved with the safety violation. “There was a lot at stake at that point.

“All those emotions were going through my mind,” Cruise added about the production’s two previous COVID delays adding fuel to the leaked audio. “I was thinking about the people I work with, and my industry. And for the whole crew to know that we’d started rolling on a movie was just a huge relief.”

In the leaked audio, Cruise was heard telling crew members, “I am beyond your apologies. We are not shutting this fucking movie down. Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re fucking gone. And so are you. So you’re gonna cost him his job. If I see it on the set, you’re gone and you’re gone. That’s it. Am I clear?…Do you understand what I want? Do you understand the responsibility that you have? Because I will deal with your reason, and if you can’t be reasonable, and I can’t deal with your logic, you’re fired. That’s it.”

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