Paramount want to market the film as the final entry in the franchise to boost audience interest
but Tom Cruise is against a public goodbye to the character
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/tom-cruise-days-of-thunder-sequel-paramount-1236051723/share
Then, there’s writer-director Christopher McQuarrie’s eagerly anticipated Mission: Impossible 8, which is finally wrapped and in post-production. The project has had a long and difficult journey, with a budget that’s reportedly approaching $400 million amid production delays — partly due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes.
While the franchise remains very popular and 2022’s seventh entry Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning — Part One largely drew raves (scoring more than 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes among both critics and audiences), the last film’s budget before marketing was nearly $300 million and its box office return was considered disappointing ($566 million globally). Making matters more challenging for the upcoming film, Dead Reckoning ended on a cliffhanger — snapping the tradition of each M:I adventure being a stand-alone entry where each film is wholly accessible to a fresh audience. Paramount has since dropped the “Part One” from 7’s title. The new film’s title will be revealed in the next couple of weeks when Paramount drops the first M:I 8 trailer.
One intriguing wrinkle: Paramount has been interested in promoting M:I 8 as the “final” entry in the action franchise as a way of boosting audience interest. Yet Cruise has been against saying a public goodbye to Ethan Hunt — not surprising, considering the preternaturally youthful actor was quoted last year as saying he hopes to keep making M:I movies into his 80s. (“Harrison Ford is a legend, I’ve got 20 years to catch up with him,” Cruise said. “I hope to keep making Mission: Impossible films until I’m his age.”)
Still, Paramount is optimistic about M:I 8 and bullishly wants to bring the film to Cannes — a move that’s lately developed a reputation as high-risk for big-budget mainstream projects, given how the festival’s critical reception torpedoed Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Horizon: An American Saga months before each title opened. At least in the case of M:I 8, the festival is scheduled right before M:I 8 opens wide in theaters (Cannes runs May 13 to 24; the M:I 8 release date is May 23), so any critical barbs from France will be coming around the same time, or just after, the movie has already had its world premiere and domestic critic screenings.
“I think Tom’s in a good place,” the studio insider noted. “And I think Mission is going to be really good.”