After all kinds of crazy trouble, the Tom Cruise (DVDs) movie Mission: Impossible 3 is going to start filming next month.

If it had kept to it’s original schedule, the movie would have been released one year ago, but the filming was postponed due to problems with directors and budgets, and rumours that Tom Cruise going bananas on Oprah might have led to the scrapping of the film entirely.

But now Brad Grey, CEO of Paramount Pictures, has greenlighted the movie. "We’re thrilled to be embarking on this exciting third ‘Mission’ with the amazing talents of Tom Cruise, J.J Abrams and the whole ‘M:I 3′ team".

The first projected release date for Mission: Impossible 3 was May 2004, but this was put back. Then Joe Carnahan (DVDs), director of Narc,
was brought in to helm the movie, but he left because of problems with
the film’s tone. Having seen Narc, this presumably means he got annoyed
because M:I 3 wasn’t relentlessly, nightmarishly, slit-your-wrists bleak.

Then, J.J Abrams (DVDs) was brought in. He’s the creator of the stunning TV show Lost, and the mediocre TV show Alias. Hopefully, he’ll decide to turn the whole film into a kind of Lost
spin-off, where Tom Cruise gets chased round a desert island by a giant
polar bear for two hours before he gets sucked through a jet engine.

Scarlett Johansson (DVDs) was originally signed up to play opposite
Tom Cruise, but she left to pout her way through a bunch of Woody Allen (DVDs)
movies. The empty role has been the subject of a lot of speculation. Lindsay ‘OK, Stop Talking About My Boobs Now’ Lohan (DVDs) was rumoured to have been taking the role – she even slimmed down to virtually nothing for the role.

Then came the weird Tom Cruise/Katie Holmes relationship and the manic, floor-punching display of something appropriating love on Oprah, and immediately there were reports of Katie Holmes acting opposite Cruise in the movie, though she’s since denied these claims.

There were even reports that the whole movie was in danger of being
scrapped. Apparently, the budget was out of control, Tom Cruise was
taking too much revenue from the project, and that his recent weirdness
somehow signalled the start of his downfall.

Mission: Impossible 3 starts shooting in July in Europe, Asia and America, and will be released on May 5 2006.

Related stories:

Lindsay Lohan Going For Mission Impossible

Tom Cruise On Oprah – He Loves Publicity

[story by Stuart Heritage]