There’s seemingly no stopping Tom Cruise. After topping the US box office for two weeks in a row with Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, his fifth film in the franchise, Cruise is now on board for a sequel to 2012’s Jack Reacher.
Paramount’s choice to green-light a follow-up comes as a bit of a surprise, considering the first instalment in the series – based on the popular novels by Lee Child – didn’t even manage to break $100m in the States. It did however make $138.3m overseas, where Cruise remains a big draw.
Ed Zwick, who Cruise worked with on The Last Samurai, has signed on to direct the sequel, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Paramount plans to begin shooting in November, to tentatively release next fall.
The success of the latest Mission Impossible was a much-needed win for Cruise, whose recent blockbusters Oblivion (2013) and Edge of Tomorrow (2014) both disappointed domestically.
Many presumed that Alex Gibney’s Scientology documentary Going Clear, which portrayed Cruise in a negative light, would further tarnish the star’s embattled reputation. But it’s clear the HBO film has had no lasting effect on the actor’s box office draw: a sixth Mission: Impossible film is also in the works, with a 2017 summer release date planned.
