Latest news with #ChrisMcQuarrie
Geek Feed
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Feed
Chris McQuarrie's Man of Steel Sequel Included Green Lantern
Before James Gunn's Superman , there was rumblings going around that Mission: Impossible director Chris McQuarrie wanted to make a sequel to Man of Steel with Henry Cavill. The project never took off, but with some time away from it, McQuarrie has revealed that his original plan had Superman teaming up with a Green Lantern in the movie. Talking to Happy Sad Confused, McQuarrie revealed, 'I'll never tell, but boy was it f*cking good. Green Lantern was what had come to me, and Green Lantern's a tough one. The power is very challenging, and I cracked it, and it was fun, and watching him learn how to use that power, and giving that power a flaw so it was not pure invincibility…' McQuarrie explained that he managed to find a flaw with GL by capitalizing on the need to charge the ring. He explains ,'The whole concept of Green Lantern is the ring has to be recharged, and that's not a bug, hat's a feature… that for me solved the whole Green Lantern problem… the costume is another thing.' McQuarrie doesn't explain why exactly his pitch didn't push through, but it was probably because there was a lot of studio drama, and it was said that the heads around that time had no intention of bringing back Henry Cavill's Superman until the Rock forced their hand with Black Adam . Personally, I was rooting for the DCEU to come back after The Flash , but things happened, and James Gunn and Peter Safran weren't interested, so now we're getting another DC reboot with Superman . Hopefully there's some kind of Elseworlds plot that can bring back Cavill, but for now, a new Superman flies into theaters on July 11. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is now out in theaters.
Irish Times
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Cannes 2025: Tom Cruise's death-defying wing-walking, the festival's ban on accused actor, and the poster on every lamp-post
Cannes do spirit Can Cannes do for Mission: Impossible what it did for Top Gun? Three years ago Tom Cruise came here with Top Gun: Maverick and, $1.4 billion later, it was decided he had saved cinema from the pandemic. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning , apparently the last in the action sequence, did not receive unbroken praise, but nobody can fault Cruise for effort. He waved at every fan. He pumped every hand. [ First Look: Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: Tom Cruise gets all sentimental amid some suave mayhem Opens in new window ] Journalists who turned up for a public interview with Chris McQuarrie, the film's director, were surprised when Cruise, dressed in claret leisurewear, arrived to support his friend and colleague. You hardly need to be told they confirmed Tom was up there with the stuntmen for the sequence in which Ethan Hunt straddled the wing of a biplane. Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Expert wing-walkers were uneasy. 'They said, 'What do you want to do?'' McQuarrie explained. 'And Tom said, 'I want to be zero G in between the wings of the plane.' And these people, who do this for a living and are part of a decades-long tradition, said, 'No, you're not going to do that,' and Tom said, 'Thank you for your time.' And we went on to some other people.' READ MORE The tireless actor is touring the world with the new film. 'I don't mind encountering the unknown,' he said. 'It's just an emotion for me, and it's something that is not paralysing.' Tom Cruise is 62. Festival bans actor accused of rape Barely two days after Gérard Depardieu, hitherto Cannes royalty, was found guilty of sexually assaulting two women, the festival has banned an actor accused of rape from walking the red carpet for a high-profile premiere. Théo Navarro-Mussy, who plays a detective in Dominik Moll's thriller Dossier 137, has, according to the magazine Télérama , been accused of assault by three women. The case was dropped for lack of evidence – 'I have explained myself to the justice system and at this stage have been cleared,' the actor remarked – but the accusers are planning an appeal and, perhaps, a civil suit. The apparent decision to bar actors accused of sexual assault brings Cannes in line with changes in policy at the César Awards, France's version of the Oscars. Dossier 137, an impressive study of police brutality in the aftermath of the gilets jaunes protests, premiered, in competition for the Palme d'Or, with all the usual bells and whistles at the Lumière Theatre on Thursday night. Great director does his Trump-slagging duty To the Croisette Theatre, a few hundred metres from the Palais, for the opening of the Directors' Fortnight sidebar. They don't half give it some welly at that bash. Whereas the main festival got through its ceremony in under an hour – including a musical number, various tributes and the awarding of an honorary Palme d'Or to Robert De Niro – the funkier sidebar took an hour and a half to kick events off. A collective called Sous les Écrans la Dèche (Broke Behind the Screens) discussed their efforts to improve workers' rights at festivals. We had several homilies to cinema. All of this translated into English by an onstage interpreter. Happily, we did also see the award of the Carrosse d'Or, the Fortnight's career honour, to the great American film-maker Todd Haynes. The director of Carol and Far from Heaven did his duty by slagging off Donald Trump as he referred to the 'barbaric US president' and the 'rise of the far right'. But he was clearly moved. 'This prize means a tremendous amount to me, because of course it's the core honour of the Directors' Fortnight,' Haynes told Le Monde. 'It comes out of a very specific history that is very political and that sort of drew a line in the sand in 1968 that separated the official Cannes festivities from something that was very auteurist.' Silent film stars The world's film journalists have been complaining about the amount of access they get to talent at big film festivals. 'Twas ever thus,' you might reasonably quip. But many of the busier journos do feel that big names are now available for notably fewer interviews. The controversy reached a head at the San Sebastián festival last year, when a group of scribes walked out after two round-table interviews were cancelled in favour of a press conference. At such affairs only a minority may get to ask a question. As Cannes kicked off, about 100 international journalists signed a statement asking studios, talent representatives and festival organisers to improve access. 'At a time when in-depth articles or interviews are giving way to social media influencers reports, the place given to cultural debates becomes a fundamental issue,' it said. 'The outright disappearance of quality film journalism would not only be detrimental to the press, but also to the visibility of films and festivals.' Flying monkey Every year, some plucky independent producer (or distributor, sales agent or whatever) manages to dominate the Croisette by having his posters on every lamp-post. In 2019, I remember, it was a film called The Bra – which, yes, really did concern a train driver seeking to find the owner of an abandoned brassiere. Akiko the Flying Monkey This year it is a potential masterpiece by one Veit Helmer entitled Akiko the Flying Monkey. The image of a monkey in an small aeroplane is already everywhere. 'The film follows its titular talking primate after he escapes from a zoo and forms an unlikely bond with an eagle, a raccoon and a chameleon,' we read. We wish all of them the best. Not least the poor wee simian aviator. Review: The Sound of Falling The Sound of Falling Director : Mascha Schilinski Cert : None Starring : Hanna Heckt, Susanne Wuest, Lena Urzendowsky, Luise Heyer, Filip Schnack, Greta Krämer, Laeni Geisler, Luzia Oppermann Running Time : 2 hrs 29 mins It's hard to tell precisely where advance buzz comes from for Cannes entries from unrecognised directors. Leaks from industry boffins? Empty hype from the production itself? Last year Payal Kapadia delivered on that buzz with her film All We Imagine as Light, the festival's eventual runner-up. The youngish German director Mascha Schilinski now does so again with a taxing, extraordinary film that, if we may be so pompous, sits comfortably in the tradition of austere European art house. Weaving together experiences from four time frames in a remote German farmhouse, the picture has the cruelty of Ingmar Bergman and the ruthlessness of Michael Haneke (particularly that director's Palme d'Or-winning The White Ribbon). But there is also a wistful lightness to some sequences. One can hardly imagine the Swede or the Austrian staging an underwater sequence to a woozy dream-pop number by Anna von Hausswolff. The Sound of Falling There are sufficient mysteries here to defy easy plot synopsis and to invite more than one rewatch. This is a film about cruelty to women. Men too. One of the most striking sequences sees the family causing an older son to unwillingly suffer amputation of a leg so as to avoid conscription on the viscera-drenched eastern front. The first scene, set later, references that incident with Erika (Lea Drinda), then a teenager, clumping down a corridor with one leg bound up to imitate her uncle's condition. Her father summons her down to tend the pigs and punches her in the face when she arrives late. We then move backwards and forwards through time to chart a history of familial and societal dysfunction. Sometimes in Germany of the kaiser, sometimes of Hitler, sometimes of the German Democratic Republic, sometimes in the present democracy. In each section the camera, shooting in academy ratio, prowls like an unseen ghost. (Maybe that's what it is.) Not everyone will be up for the deliberate narrative muddle or the sheer catastrophe of it all. There is not much forward movement here. But this remains a uniquely uneasy work that even its detractors will enjoy dissecting. The first time in many years that the first film in competition looks like a distinctly plausible Palme d'Or winner. Review: The Left-Handed Girl The Left-Handed Girl Director : Shih-Ching Tsou Cert : None Starring : Janel Tsai, Shih-Yuan Ma, Nina Ye, Brando Huang, Akio Chen, Xin-Yan Chao Running Time : 1 hr 38 mins It does a disservice to Shih-Ching Tsou, director of this delightful Taiwanese jewel, to begin with 'Sean Baker is back'. But the director, who produced Baker joints such as Red Rocket and The Florida Project (both Cannes premieres), will know that, a year after her friend triumphed with Anora, his presence as editor, coproducer and cowriter was sure to attract attention. Apologies. To be honest, even if their names were not in the credits, critics would surely make comparisons to those collaborations. The Left-Handed Girl has the same freewheeling energy, the same unforced performances and, most notably, the same sure sense of place. The Left-Handed Girl This time we are in colourful, buzzing, funny Taipei with three generations of indomitable women. Shu-Fen (Janet Tsai) is the long-suffering mum to tearaway adult I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) and tiny, endlessly enchanting I-Jing (Nina Ye), the title character. The poor wee girl listens too closely to her deadbeat grandad, husband of an internationally criminal mum, and, honouring an apparent Taiwanese myth, eventually accepts that her left-handedness is a sign of evil. So why not use that hand to disrupt, shoplift and generally cause mayhem? The hand is going to hell anyway. Playing in the Critics' Choice strand, The Left-Handed Girl is a little lacking in order. We zoom randomly from one character to the next without much structure. But as a lighthearted character study and a vibrant advertisement for its home city it could scarcely be bettered. The place looks hectic and occasionally dangerous but always thrilling. Review: Two Prosecutors Two Prosecutors Director : Sergei Loznitsa Cert : None Starring : Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Alexander Filippenko, Anatoli Beliy, Andris Keišs, Vytautas Kaniušonis Running Time : 1 hr 58 mins Is there anything else to say about the cruelties of the Stalin era? Maybe not. But Sergei Loznitsa, a Cannes regular, finds gripping ways of walking through the old stories in a film that plays like two intense chamber pieces set amid the gloomiest of shorter interludes. The film looks to be working in allegory even as it is relating incidents that could very well have happened. We begin with an elderly political prisoner in a Soviet jail being given a match and forced to burn a series of petitions to Stalin. Two Prosecutors One missive stands out and makes its way to the young, still idealistic (maybe naive) Kornyev, a prosecutor, played with handsome intensity by Aleksandr Kuznetsov. That takes him to a horrific interview with Stepniak (Alexander Filippenko), a once-proud Bolshevik who, his body now distorted by scars and hernias, refuses to confess to trumped-up crimes no matter how harsh the torture. He eventually persuades Kornyev to take his accusations to top brass in Moscow. With the benefit of historical hindsight, we can see problems ahead. The intense, taut film, which detractors may feel too close to a play, is good on the deceptions, evasions and hypocrisies of bureaucratic oppression. But it is better still on the lost potential of the idealistic comrades who forged the revolution. Wintry and worrying but, as is often the case with tales from Russia, infused with most fatalistic humour.
Daily Mail
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Tom Cruise was just THREE minutes away from catastrophe while filming wild Mission: Impossible 8 stunt that saw the actor pass out
Tom Cruise, who will premiere Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – at the Cannes Film Festival tonight, said today that the secret to performing all his own stunts is that he feels 'no fear.' Cruise, 62, famously shattered his ankle leaping between two skyscrapers on the previous Mission: Impossible and was a surprise addition to a media session on Wednesday afternoon with his long-time movie collaborator and close friend, director Chris McQuarrie. Taking the stage at the Debussy Theatre to wild applause Cruise talked about his great love of cinema, his passion for telling stories, and became emotional as he discussed this last-ever entry in a franchise which has run for 30 years. In this Mission: Impossible he wing-walks on a vintage biplane and also acts in an extraordinary underwater sequence set on board a submarine. He said: 'How do I feel about fear? Oh that's exciting. I like the feeling. It's not paralysing it doesn't bother me, I enjoy it. In any endeavour people can be afraid, I don't mind confronting it and going in. I wanted an interesting life that's very dynamic. 'I try to know before I go on set as much as I can. I have a goal and I have a list of what I need to learn to get to the goal and I go up and down the list and keep attacking it, 'Oh I had better learn how to fly a helicopter.' He went on: 'People say be careful. I say be competent strive towards being capable and look for know that you can apply and when you apply it gets you the results that you want. It's a constant study.' McQuarrie added of the stunts: 'Tom and I are often watching in the edit room and thinking: 'Someone should have stopped this thing.' 'The craziest stunt in this movie, and there are many, is towards the very end of the film. It was the result of my foolishly showing Tom a Tiktok video thinking he would be amused by it. 'He said I could do that and I said no you couldn't - and he said yes I would. I do I regret saying things to Tom.' McQuarrie explained that the biplane stunt which saw the actor wing walking was particularly terrifying. 'There was no radio so I had to fly up in a helicopter (to direct him) step onto the skid and do hand signals while he was on the wing of the biplane. 'When you leave the cockpit its wind over 140mph from the propellor. You are breathing but not actually getting oxygen. There is a stopwatch every minute that he goes out there and Tom has 12 minutes. We know from experience that the fatigue is breaking him down, it's like two hours in the gym at that point. 'We got to 12 minutes and I would lean out and make the cut sign and he would make camera rolling gesture. 'There was more than one moment where he was so physically exhausted he could not get back up off the wing, and we could not tell if he was conscious or not. We had agreed not to cut until he made the sign. 'At this point there were only three minutes of fuel, and you know the plane can't land if Tom is on the wing. He's got three minutes to get up and has been on the wing for 20 minutes. 'He raised his head and put it into the cockpit to grab oxygen enough to have the energy to drag himself off the wing and then he got into the cockpit and landed the plane. No one can do that except for Tom Cruise.' McQuarrie added that he believes Cruise – who has never won as Oscar – was very underrated as an actor. He revealed that in Mission Impossible: Fallout one scene was shot at a location where there were only five hours of available light. 'Tom said: 'Do everybody else (in the scene). Tom Cruise's whole performance was delivered in the last eight minutes of available sunlight.' He added that the scene in Top Gun: Maverick with the late Val Kilmer, who was ill, was delivered by Cruise at the first take. Cruise sounded emotional about the final instalment of the film and said: ' I have just put everything into it and its joyous doing it. T here's not a day I didn't go and try and do it the best I can. Tonight it's 30 years, the culmination of this. It has come to this moment now. We've had an amazing time doing it.' He added: 'I love coming to Cannes. The history here is extraordinary.' Mission: Impossible 8 features returning stars Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham, Pom Klementieff and Henry Czerny, all of whom are back from the previous film. The stacked cast will also be augmented by new faces, including Bob Odenkirk, Parks & Recreation star Nick Offerman, Ted Lasso's Hannah Waddingham, Ozark actress Janet McTeer and Katy O'Brian. Dead Reckoning and The Final Reckoning were at one point billed as the last films to star Tom in the Mission: Impossible series. However, McQuarrie backed away from that idea during the publicity campaign for the first film, and Cruise has since expressed interest in continuing to explore what Ethan Hunt's adventures might be like well into old age. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning will be released in theaters on May 17 of this year.
Digital Trends
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning first reactions are mixed, and that's disappointing
In the trailer for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt asks someone to trust him one last time. Judging by the first reactions on social media, Cruise is now asking the audience to trust him that he still delivered an action spectacle. The social media embargo lifted for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning on May 12. The initial reactions are mixed, which comes as a surprise considering how much praise the last few entries have received. Recommended Videos Erik Davis of Fandango and Rotten Tomatoes said Cruise takes The Final Reckoning to the next level. 'It's the biggest, wildest, and most consequential Mission movie yet,' Davis wrote on X. Director Chris McQuarrie and star Tom Cruise truly take #MissionImpossible to the next level with #TheFinalReckoning. Absolutely astonishing action moments meet a sprawling story w/ many nods to past MI films. It's the biggest, wildest and most consequential Mission movie yet.… — Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) May 13, 2025 Good Day's Chicago Jake Hamilton called the plane sequence 'one of cinema's greatest stunts.' Hamilton wrote, 'Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is a love letter to fans who just rewatched the entire series.' MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – THE FINAL RECKONING is a love letter to fans who just rewatched the entire series. It ties the entire series together as one story rather than 8 entries. First time I've cried in the series. Plane sequence is one of cinema's greatest stunts. I loved it. — Jake Hamilton (@JakesTakes) May 13, 2025 Indiewire's David Ehrlich had a more negative reaction, calling it 'dull and dysfunctional.' Despite praising the set pieces, Ehrlich was ultimately disappointed by The Final Reckoning, calling it a 'massive heartbreaker.' Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning is dull and dysfunctional in a way i didn't think this franchise was capable of. setpieces are obviously incredible, but as someone so supportive of Cruise's crusade to save the movies and whatnot this was a massive heartbreaker. — david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) May 13, 2025 Griffin Schiller compared Final Reckoning to The Rise of Skywalker, saying it 'plays like an egregious franchise greatest hits.' While not as bad as TROS, FINAL RECKONING is undoubtedly cut from the same cloth. Plagued by insecurity, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 8 plays like an egregious franchise greatest hits. Scenes have no beginning or end, it's scatterbrained nonsense – a constant flow of exposition &… — Griffin Schiller (@griffschiller) May 13, 2025 Mission: Impossible is the gold standard for action franchises, so it's disappointing to read about the mixed reactions. Cruise's action sequences, including the death-defying plane stunt, will certainly be a highlight. However, the conflicting reception is not ideal, especially for a franchise that might have to disappear for the foreseeable future before Cruise returns or another actor steps in as the new lead. Cruise headlines The Final Reckoning as Ethan Hun, the IMF agent who must race to find the Entity and destroy it before it gets into the wrong hands. The ensemble includes Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Mariela Garriga, Holt McCallany, Janet McTeer, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Tramell Tillman, Shea Whigham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Charles Parnell, Mark Gatiss, Rolf Saxon, Lucy Tulugarjuk and Angela Bassett. Christopher McQuarrie directs from a screenplay he co-wrote with Erik Jendresen. Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning opens in theaters on May 23.
Geek Tyrant
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Tyrant
First Reactions to MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - THE FINAL RECKONING Explode on Social Media! — GeekTyrant
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning has ignited social media with an explosion of first reactions, and as a longtime fan of the franchise, I couldn't wait to watch this movie! I had the opportunity to watch it and it was an incredible moviegoing excperience! I posted on social media: ' Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is an action movie masterpiece! It's a masterclass in filmmaking, and one of the best movies of the year! Non-stop tension! I freakin' loved it!' After years of death-defying stunts and world-saving chaos, Tom Cruise returns as Ethan Hunt for what's being positioned as the franchise's swan song. Picking up after Dead Reckoning 's cliffhanger, this eighth installment sees the IMF team face-off with their greatest enemy yet, a dangerous artificial intelligence known only as The Entity, and its sinister human counterpart Gabriel (Esai Morales). With intelligence agencies worldwide trying to control the Entity, Ethan and crew embark on a mission to stop a nuclear apocalypse. Reactions have been pouring in with /Film writer Bill Bria shared: "[Director Chris McQuarrie] & Cruise began their 'Mission: Impossible' tour with an opera; 'The Final Reckoning' sees the duo complete their big swing two-parter as an operatic tour de force. The most emotional & tense 'Mission' yet, the film looks into the abyss (& 'The Abyss') & soars out of it beautifully." Jake Hamilton of ReelBlend went even further, calling it a love letter to fans. 'It ties the entire series together as one story rather than 8 entries,' he wrote, even admitting this was 'the first time' a Mission movie made him cry. He singled out the highly anticipated plane stunt as 'one of cinema's greatest stunts.' Erik Davis of Fandango echoed that emotional punch, calling it the biggest and most consequential entry yet: 'Director Chris McQuarrie and star Tom Cruise truly take 'Mission: Impossible' to the next level with 'The Final Reckoning.' Absolutely astonishing action moments meet a sprawling story w/ many nods to past 'M:I' films. It's the biggest, wildest and most consequential 'Mission' movie yet.' Davis even teased that one sequence feels like a horror movie, while another literally 'took my breath away.' Critic Zach Pope chimed in with high praise: '#MissionImpossibleTheFinalReckoning is an emotional, riveting, & perfect Mission impossible finale. That feels the most visceral of them all. With pound for pound punches, exhilarating stunts (that might be the best of the franchise), & incredible performances throughout.' And Courtney Howard was all-in on the spectacle: '#MissionImpossibleTheFinalReckoning rips! Loved it. An exhilarating adrenaline rush for the head & heart & immersive, awe-inducing stuntacular of the highest order. McQ, @TomCruise & Co have crafted the gold standard - a brilliant, bold actioner for the ages. See it BIG & LOUD.' Chris Evangelista of /Film said: 'I love this series and think all the movies have their charms (even '2'!). But ['The Final Reckoning'] is extremely messy, with way too much exposition. And yet, the grand finale is so jaw-dropping and intense I felt like I was going to throw up (complimentary).' Messy, maybe — but sounds like a thrill worth losing your lunch over. Whether you're a full-throttle fan or cautiously curious, the consensus is clear, MIssion: Impossible - The Final Reckoning is a beast of an action movie. It's chaotic, emotional, big, bold, and exactly the kind of action cinema that's become synonymous with Cruise and company. It delivers the goods! If this really is the end of Ethan Hunt's journey, it's looking like one hell of a high note to go out on. I can't wait to watch it again! Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hits theaters and IMAX on May 23!
