The folks who saw “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” last night in LA and NY didn’t see a finished film. I’m told that Christopher McQuarrie allowed a version to be shown missing a finished scene. The scene shows Tom Cruise underwater holding his breath.
“The special effects aren’t finished yet,” says a source. “They’ll be done right before the movie premieres next Thursday in Vienna.”
It’s not surprising, considering that “Rogue Nation” is opening five months early. It was originally on Paramount’s schedule for Christmas Day. But the studio wanted to get it out of the way of the new Star Wars and James Bond movies.
Meanwhile, Variety reports that advance tracking for “Rogue Nation” is “soft.” They’re now saying it could have a $40 million opening weekend on July 31st. That would be a huge disappointment for Paramount. But Cruise has never been a big opener, and his movies — with the exception of the “Mission Impossible” franchise– usually struggle to hit $100 million total.
Compounding his problems is that as time goes by, Cruise is better known as a nut who belongs to Scientology than as a movie star. The average 20 year old was around 10 when Cruise was jumping on Oprah’s couch and fighting with Matt Lauer. Plus, HBO’s “Going Clear” documentary paints him as sort of crazy.
But Cruise works his magic at premieres, especially in Europe. He still sells like crazy in foreign countries, particularly South Korea and Russia, where Scientology isn’t a big deal. They just want movie stars. And once people hear the “Mission Impossible” theme music, that’s usually a positive trigger.
