What with all the speculation of John Woo problems with MISSION IMPOSSIBLE II, I figured it would be best if I kinda turned the ol magnifying glass over to that particular film.
I didn't find out too terrible much, but I did hear a thing or two. First off.... The 'alleged' problems with John Woo are... in fact... not there. (Even though I do have a couple of 'never before heard of' spies that claim to the contrary... until their predictions of doom come true... I won't be backing their stories up) Word from the cracks of the project says that John and Cruise are getting along fine and there is not an ego clash.
Next up is that Dougray Scott will indeed be playing the heavy in the film, and that Ian McKellen will be playing a senior IMF fella and not a villian. In fact McKellen (cheated out of his SAG award IMHO) will be playing the part of a mentor... ala Alec Guinness in THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM.
Word is that the script is... 'pretty good' but it is still being worked on... and the FINAL writer (after "10 zillion writers" and millions spent) will be Robert Towne. He'll be staying with the production for the rest of the way.
Production is on hold... but that is only till a couple of details in the script and the conception of action scenes are ironed out... That way they won't be 'wasting money' on folks that don't need to be working on the project for until another couple of weeks goes by.
And that is where things are at right now. For some reason there seem to be a lot of rumors about John Woo wanting larger and larger action sequences... BUT when you really get down to it... That is what this film is. It's a BIG HUGE Tom Cruise Actioner with the King of Action, John Woo, directing it all. The budget will be huge... because well... that's the type of movie it is. Things should be moving fine in a couple of weeks I'm told...
Here's what one MonkeyBoy had to say about it all....
Next up is that Dougray Scott will indeed be playing the heavy in the film, and that Ian McKellen will be playing a senior IMF fella and not a villian. In fact McKellen (cheated out of his SAG award IMHO) will be playing the part of a mentor... ala Alec Guinness in THE QUILLER MEMORANDUM.
Word is that the script is... 'pretty good' but it is still being worked on... and the FINAL writer (after "10 zillion writers" and millions spent) will be Robert Towne. He'll be staying with the production for the rest of the way.
Production is on hold... but that is only till a couple of details in the script and the conception of action scenes are ironed out... That way they won't be 'wasting money' on folks that don't need to be working on the project for until another couple of weeks goes by.
And that is where things are at right now. For some reason there seem to be a lot of rumors about John Woo wanting larger and larger action sequences... BUT when you really get down to it... That is what this film is. It's a BIG HUGE Tom Cruise Actioner with the King of Action, John Woo, directing it all. The budget will be huge... because well... that's the type of movie it is. Things should be moving fine in a couple of weeks I'm told...
Here's what one MonkeyBoy had to say about it all....
Production is on hold... but that is only till a couple of details in the script and the conception of action scenes are ironed out... That way they won't be 'wasting money' on folks that don't need to be working on the project for until another couple of weeks goes by.
And that is where things are at right now. For some reason there seem to be a lot of rumors about John Woo wanting larger and larger action sequences... BUT when you really get down to it... That is what this film is. It's a BIG HUGE Tom Cruise Actioner with the King of Action, John Woo, directing it all. The budget will be huge... because well... that's the type of movie it is. Things should be moving fine in a couple of weeks I'm told...
Here's what one MonkeyBoy had to say about it all....
Here's what one MonkeyBoy had to say about it all....
A few troubling developments downunder with Mission Impossible II. Lots of rumours flying around about how Woo and Cruise are having "creative differences" but a few things are certain: Shooting has been delayed for at least two weeks. According to sources at Sydney's Fox Studios it will not begin on March 20 as scheduled, but they would not confirm nor deny reports staff had been stood down and there were script problems. They are also not sure when filming will start now.
Most of the crew however --- construction and art department staff --- were stood down last Friday and are now looking for work elsewhere. Just a skeleton crew remains. But despite the development, it looks like the film still be shooting in Sydney. There are reports that some of the foreign scenes in the script will be cut to keep the budget down and most of it will be filmed downunder, even many of the Spanish scenes (this brings back awful memories of the 1980s MI revival filmed in Queensland but set unconvincingly around the world). Tom Cruise (minus Nicole) arrived in Sydney in his private jet on Friday and was in studio meetings most of the weekend. And on Saturday the studio went ahead with a casting call for "Hispanic-looking extras" for the major street festival of fire scene planned to be shot over two nights next month. (The scene is set in Spain but will be filmed in Sydney). Also, the crew is still looking for a Spanish mission-style mansion after owners of the waterfront home Boomerang (no joke) rejected the offer of $20,000 a day to film there. Even though Janet Jackson and Ricky Martin had just used the house, built in 1926, for a Pepsi commercial and many fashion shoots are shot there, the owners thought the crew of a big-budget movie would be too disruptive.
It also look like the much-awarded Aussie actor Richard Roxburgh will take the lead Antipodean role as rumoured. Two weeks ago he sent publicists for the Sydney Theatre Company season of Art into a panic when he pulled out of one of the starring roles at the last minute. His reason was so he could take part in a major film about to be shot at Sydney's Fox studios...
The next week or so should be interesting...
Monkey Boy
