Mission: Impossible 7 was getting ready to film in Venice, Italy, just as the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in a big way. This made it one of the first major film productions to be forced to shut down. Production has restarted now, but it seems that Tom Cruise is so dedicated to making sure that the movie doesn't see further delays that he's spent $700,000 to rent a Hurtigruten watercraft to be used by the production.
Filming for the next Mission: Impossible movie has reportedly resumed in London, but is apparently set to move to Norway at some point. When that happens, The Sun reports that Tom Cruise will provide a massive watercraft for the production. While the exact purpose of the boat is unclear, a source is quoted in the report that the hope is that it will "keep everyone safe" so the plan appears to be to use the ship to create a "bubble" not unlike what the NBA did at Walt Disney World. By keeping everybody in the production together, and away from outside contact, it reduces the odds of anybody getting sick.
Movie delays cost money and while the pandemic delay was essentially unavoidable, the fear that an infection could cause more delays has to be a the forefront of everybody's mind. Safety precautions will be incredibly important. There's going to be an obvious desire to want to push this production forward but in a way that future delays are unlikely. And if your star, who is also a producer, is willing to pay for a massive ship to house everybody, why not?
And of course, delays in Mission: impossible 7 are all the more important because in addition to that film, scheduled for release in November of next year, there is an eighth film in the franchise set to release 12 months later that can't go into production until part seven is finished, so there are two movies riding on this schedule staying together. The delay itself has already forced one significant recasting for Mission: Impossible 7 and any additional delays could cause more problems.
Film production is going to be touch and go around the world for a long time, and productions like Mission: Impossible, where filming on location is part of what sells them, are going to have that much tougher time as traveling between nations is exactly the sort of thing that runs the risk of spreading viruses. A movie looking to film everything at a studio is going to have a much easier time keeping things contained.
At this point, we have no idea what amazing and insane stunts Tom Cruise has in store for us in the new Mission: Impossible, but if the man is willing to spend nearly three-quarters of a million dollars of his own money, then he's quite committed to getting them done.
