Released in 2006, “Mission: Impossible 3” experienced an eventful development before being entrusted to JJ Abrams. The movie could have been totally different if Paramount’s early plans had come to fruition.
Ethan Hunt embarked on a race against time in Mission: Impossible 3
After six years of absence, Ethan Hunt returned to the cinema in 2006 in Mission: Impossible 3. This time we find the hero in a new situation. He left active service to lead a “normal” life with his fiancée, Julia. But when Lindsey, which he himself trained, disappears in Berlin, Ethan decides to go in search of him. Joined by Luther and two other agents, he goes to the lair of trafficker Owen Davian…
While the first two films were directed by two different directors, the saga still changes direction. A new filmmaker is hired to box Mission: Impossible 3. It is JJ Abrams. For the director’s first feature film, Tom cruise reprise his role as Ethan Hunt and Ving Rhames that of Luther. The other members of the IMF team who support Ethan are still changing, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Maggie Q thus play Declan Gormley and Zhen Lei respectively. As for Julia, she is embodied by Michelle monaghan, while Owen Davian is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman.
David Fincher could have achieved Mission: Impossible 3
While it took six years between the second and third films, that wasn’t the original plan. After the success of Mission: Impossible 2, Paramount wanted to follow up with a third film on the adventures of Ethan Hunt. The studio and Tom Cruise then immediately started looking for a director for the third film, and agreed in 2002 on a surprising choice: David Fincher!
Even more surprising when you know the control the filmmaker likes to have over his films. He has agreed to take the reins of Mission: Impossible 3. Attracted by the original idea the studio and Cruise had for the feature film, he then revealed that if Paramount would let him “50% of what he wanted to do should make an interesting film. “. M: I 3 was due to be released in the summer of 2004. But the filmmaker finally abandoned the project, later alluding to creative differences.
And Joe Carnahan would have brought a totally different cast
The production of Mission: Impossible 3 wasted no time in finding a replacement, and Cruise asked Joe Carnahan to take over. The director also accepted at first, and started working on a screenplay with Dan Gilroy, which he himself described as “Punk rock”. His story spoke in particular of the privatization of the army and of Africa. And as the development progressed, several actors began to be cast in the leading roles.
Kenneth branagh was thus hired to play the villain, Carrie-Ann Moss signed on to star in the film, and Scarlett johansson has also joined the project. But Carnahan finally abandoned the project too. for artistic differences with the studio.
Less than a month later, Paramount announced that JJ Abrams would direct Mission: Impossible 3. This is Tom Cruise, impressed by the series A.k.a, who chose him and offered him the reins of what would then be his first feature film. The studio agreed to postpone the filming of the film so that Abrams had time to deal with the pilot episode of Lost. The latter then began to rewrite the script of M: I 3 with Alex Kurtzman, his collaborator on the cult series, and Roberto Orci.
It became clear that the actors who signed on to the project would not be reuniting with the characters they had been hired to play. Branagh, Johansson and Moss have all left the project. In the end, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Michelle Monaghan and Laurence Fishburne were all hired, and the completed script produced the film we know today. Mission: Impossible 3 was unveiled in theaters in May 2006, two years after its initial release date.
Since then, several films have emerged. Mission Impossible 7 will be released in 2022 and promises to be even crazier in terms of stunts.
