MI:3

[MacGuffin]

Keri Russell Accepts "Mission"

Keri Russell has accepted her Mission.

The former Felicity star is reuniting with director J.J. Abrams to star opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 3.

Russell will portray a junior agent mentored by Cruise's character, Ethan Hunt.

The role was originally intended to be played by Scarlett Johansson, but the Lost in Translation star pulled out of the film last month due to scheduling delays.

Lindsay Lohan had also expressed interest in the part, but Russell, 29, ultimately won out.

The cast is rounded out by Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Michelle Monaghan and Philip Seymour Hoffman.

M:I-3 received the official green light from Paramount just last week after the studio reached a deal with executive producers Cruise and Paula Wagner to pare down the budget and adjust Cruise's profit participation deal.

Before the film got the go-ahead, rampant speculation existed that making Mission might become impossible due to its swollen budget. The New York Times also reported that Cruise's increasingly erratic behavior of late was cause for concern among higher-ups at Paramount and DreamWorks, the two studios behind Cruise's upcoming War of the Worlds.

Now that casting is complete, M:I-3 will begin shooting in Italy next month. The film is slated to open in theaters on May 5, 2006.

Apart from her upcoming Mission, Russell currently appears in the Steven Spielberg-produced miniseries Into the West, about life on the American Frontier. The TNT series' premiere drew some 6.4 million viewers last Friday.

[Kal]

Keri Russel replacing Scarlett? I dont think so... she is like 10 years older... and she was famous also like 10 years ago... no way

[MacGuffin]

Fishburne, Hoffman set new 'Mission'
Source: Hollywood Reporter

"Mission: Impossible 3" is getting closer to accomplishing its mission, signing Laurence Fishburne and Philip Seymour Hoffman to the Paramount Pictures project.

They join Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, Ving Rhames, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Keri Russell in the sequel, which is being produced by Cruise and his production partner Paula Wagner through their C/W Prods. banner. Fishburne will play Cruise's mentor; Hoffman will play the villain. J.J. Abrams is set to direct.

Rhames and Cruise are the only holdovers from the original cast assembled to shoot "M:I-3" when it was scheduled to film last year. That cast also included Carrie-Anne Moss, Kenneth Branagh and Scarlett Johansson.

The film was put on hold in the summer after director Joe Carnahan opted out over creative differences close to the original production date. Abrams quickly emerged as the frontrunner but was unavailable to shoot last year as he was committed to direct the ABC series "Lost." Cruise filled the gap, filming "War of the Worlds." "M:I-3" is set to start lensing July 18 in Italy and will shoot on location throughout the world.
 
Last year wasn't the first time the film was put on hold. "M:I-3" was originally aiming for a summer 2004 release date but was pushed back to make room for Cruise's "Collateral," which Paramount and DreamWorks Pictures joined forces to co-finance.

The latest version of "M:I-3" was greenlighted this month, with the film now scheduled for a May 5 release date.

[Pubrick]

they should just get Altman to direct this and get it over with..

[Ravi]

they should just get Altman to direct this and get it over with..

I can imagine the audience now:

"Everyone was talking over each other, I couldn't hear who was saying what."

[grand theft sparrow]

New pics from the M:I3 set!!

[Kal]

Laurence Fishburne should be Morpheous again... maybe before he actually discovered about The Matrix and all that he was working with Ethan Hunt... and they are all dreaming

Its the only way I can picture him in another character... and the only way the exagerated special effects and ridiculous action sequences could be possible

[MacGuffin]

Maggie Q to Star in 'Mission Impossible'

Hong Kong actress Maggie Quigley will get a leading role in the next "Mission: Impossible" film that begins shooting in Italy next month, a newspaper reported Friday.

Quigley, best known as Maggie Q, will be playing a good character as she stars with Tom Cruise, the South China Morning Post quoted her agent, Yong Mee-yian, as saying.

"Maggie went to Los Angeles last week for the last casting and we are glad to hear that she was given a role," Yong was quoted as saying.

The actress's father is American and her mother Vietnamese. She also starred in the comedy "Rush Hour 2" and Jackie Chan's "Around the World in 80 Days."

[NEON MERCURY]

She also starred in the comedy "Rush Hour 2" and Jackie Chan's "Around the World in 80 Days."

wow! now thats an impressive resume...



cruise: "maggie Q, you know that you got to pray to the aliens each night on set.  you got to thank exharbax the IV for strength"

Q: "leally?  cruise, i will prahy and wok hald fol you! ..long time"

[Gamblour.]

Haha!...offensive, I love it.

[MacGuffin]

Making M:I-3 Possible
Scribes say first two don't count.
 
Screenwriters Alex Kurtman and Roberto Orci have been quite busy over the past two years. Their latest movie, The Island, opens on Friday; their script for the live-action The Transformers movie is now in pre-production; and they have two projects currently shooting, The Mask of Zorro and much delayed Mission: Impossible III. Recently in New York, the writers answered questions about M:I-3, particularly, how will they take the movie in a new direction?

Says Kurtzman, "If you ask [director] J.J. Abrahms, he'll tell you that when we all sat down to conceive of this movie, we said to ourselves this movie has to work in spite of the fact that Tom Cruise is in it. It can't be about that at all. "

Kurtzman admits the direction they decided to take is that the movie had to stand on its own. "This should be a movie that if you took him out of it it should still be great. And that fact that it happens to be Mission: Impossible is a very secondary thing. The fun is it was, the first two movies… we watched them, we liked them, but they didn't come into play."

For the character of Ethan Hunt the writers had little back-story to build upon. That being the case, they were essentially given the freedom to take the character wherever they wanted to go. "The only thing that we know about Ethan Hunt is that his parents died, so we had very little that we had to follow," says Kurtzman. "The fun of Mission: Impossible for us is finding out how to make a movie that was really exploration of that character in a way that the previous two movies have not done. Aside from some unbelievable action sequences."

"The way we look at it is Mission: Impossible is a spy movie," says Orci. "And unless you're going to say that all spy movies are somehow indebted to the genre, this isn't. It's a new movie. For us as screenwriters, the fact that he's called Ethan Hunt becomes irrelevant if you're really treating it as a character thing and really trying to find new ground. It also makes you conscious of the fact that you want to find new ground. You don't want to just do a continuation of whatever they were doing in the first two movies."

Orci adds that the same can be applied to Zorro. "The sequel is now about a guy who's married and has a family. He has a child and he's trying to continue his job and it's very much sort of a contemporary story in that. That works alone whether or not he's Zorro. When you approach it from a character point for us, it helps to know that you're not ripping everything off all over again, like it's the same damn movie again. It helps if you don't feel that way."

[MacGuffin]

Crudup Accepts Mission
Big Fish star joining Cruise flick.

Big Fish and Almost Famous star Billy Crudup has joined Tom Cruise and company in Mission: Impossible III, according to today's Variety. Crudup is a late addition to this picture which started shooting in July under the direction of J.J. Abrams (Alias).

The trade doesn't have details on Crudup's part except to say that he's been cast in a "lead role" in the Paramount Pictures actioner. The thesp is currently shooting The Good Shepherd, directed by Robert De Niro.

In addition to Cruise, Crudup joins Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne, Keri Russell, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Michelle Monaghan, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Maggie Q and Sasha Alexander on the film.

Screenwriters Alex Kurtman and Roberto Orci have hinted that the film will be a departure from the previous two installments in the blockbuster series. They've also really fleshed out the character of Ethan Hunt.  

"The fun of Mission: Impossible for us is finding out how to make a movie that was really an exploration of that character in a way that the previous two movies have not done, aside from some unbelievable action sequences," Kurtzman says.

The movie will shoot in Italy, the United States and China.

M:I-3 is set for a May 5, 2006 big-screen debut.

[polkablues]

Crudup Accepts Mission

 

Maybe I'll pay to see this movie after all.

[NEON MERCURY]

haha, yeah, i like crudup alot.  i like the way he treats women ...i will be seeing this now too.

[The Red Vine]