'Mission: Impossible 6' now expected to wrap production in December

With Tom Cruise temporarily out of action because of a stunt injury, Mission: Impossible 6 is expected to wrap production in December rather than October but can still be delivered for its planned release next July, a source close to the production said Thursday.

Likewise, director Christopher McQuarrie insisted in an interview with British movie magazine Empire that, although the exact length of the hiatus had not yet been determined, “nothing that we’re looking at right now is going to affect the release date.” He said he still had seven to eight weeks to go on principal photography, which began in France on April 8.

Cruise broke his right ankle last week while performing a stunt in London. The source close to the production said that the production’s insurance would have to cover any costs incurred by a delay and that, following the injury, insurance costs for the actor, who performs many of his own stunts, are likely increase.

McQuarrie, who directed Cruise in the last Mission: Impossible installment as well as in 2012’s Jack Reacher, said much of the film’s action had already been shot. “What we have in front of us is less complex, except for one sequence that is really intense. Fortunately for us, the one that’s really intense doesn’t happen to be intense on [Cruise’s] ankle,” McQuarrie told Empire on Wednesday.

This is not the first time that Cruise has left the M:I—6 set. In the spring, he took time off to promote The Mummy.

Paramount has confirmed Cruise’s injury but has not specified how long the star would be out of action in front of the camera. While he recovers, production on M:I—6 could switch focus to VFX scenes while leaving remaining scenes with the actors till the end of the shoot.

“You simply rearrange the order in which you were going to do certain things on the movie,” McQuarrie said, adding that he had spent Wednesday on the backlot at Warner Bros.’ Leavesden Studios, where the production is based, and was preparing to shoot an insert.

“We’ll assess what there is to be shot and what we can shoot…. Once we’ve shot through that we’ll go on a hiatus and then I’ll shift my attention over to editorial,” McQuarrie said. “We’ve already shot a huge chunk of the movie so you’re just taking a big chunk of post-production and moving it up sooner. Then we go back to shooting when the hiatus is over.”

McQuarrie said that following the accident, in which Cruise slammed against a wall while jumping from the roof of a neighboring building, the actor’s primary concern was whether the director had gotten the shot he needed.

“He was lying down with his foot up and I brought him the shot and he looked at it,” McQuarrie said. “As only Tom Cruise can do, with an ice pack around his ankle, he said, ‘That’s a pretty cool shot!’”

Get more fromVariety and Variety411: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter