Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One nearly followed in the footsteps of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny in de-aging its iconic lead actor.
During a recent interview with GamesRadar+ and Total Film, director Christopher McQuarrie revealed that the Mission: Impossible 7 creative team looked into using the technology on Tom Cruise for one of the opening scenes in the film.
“Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie that was going to take place in 1989,” he explained. “We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging.”
But it wasn’t the actual technology that ultimately led to McQuarrie deciding against using it in the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise.
“One of the big things about [the de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, ‘Boy, this de-aging is really good’ or ‘This de-aging is not so good,” the director recalled. “Never did I find myself actually following the story.”
Once they actually tested out the de-aging technology on Cruise, McQuarrie said that he was so engrossed with how the actor looked that he missed out on his performance. He added, “I was so distracted by how an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person.”
Although fans can’t expect to see a younger version of Cruise in the movie, the director noted that he is looking into ways to possibly incorporate it into future projects.
“In researching that [technology], I cracked the code – I think – on how best to approach it,” McQuarrie said. “By then, we had kind of moved away from it. We may still play with it. We never say never.”
Audiences also recently saw 80-year-old Harrison Ford appear as a 40-something in the fifth Indiana Jones film when it hit theaters at the end of June. Director James Mangold used de-aging technology and old footage of the actor to create the illusion.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is currently playing in theaters.
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