Wonder Con - JJ Abrams talks Mission Impossible 3

Posted by: MovieManX

Film Impossible - It's been said that Mission Impossible 3 is a due disaster, that the franchise is lost and one should leave well enough alone. It's also been said that director J.J. Abrams, while a good television director, is out of place, trying to pick up MI3 where such film greats as Brian De Palma and John Woo left off. Even I often found myself thinking such things. After his panel at the SF Wondercon this weekend, I realized I couldn't have been more wrong. Says Abrams "TV is the best training ground". Quite right J.J. - television production has a pace of gogogogogogo, which film production is paced as all hell, making sure everything is done just right. In terms of production, film is an art form, which T.V. is a way to make money.

With two seasons of "Alias" (a SPY show) and a season of "Lost" (one of the nation's most popular shows) under his belt, J.J. Abrams has had his share of practice. Abrams told the Wondercon audience that Tom Cruise had approached him while he was still directing "Lost". Cruise, who had just recently watch both seasons of "Alias", told Abrams that he wanted to meet with him. At his panel, Abrams came through as a really humble down-to-earth kind of guy, and it really showed when he told us one of the first things he asked Cruise after meeting him: "So is it weird that your Tom Cruise?" He went on to tell us that after he was secured as director, Tom told him that he still wanted to do his own stunts, and when it came time to put up, Tom didn't back down. "Tom was one of the most focused professionals I've ever worked with. Instead of soaking in a tub of ice all day after a stunt, he would come back to the set on the same day to do some dialog scenes or something else".

Abrams biggest concern with a new "Mission Impossible" film was audience anticipation. He came to realize that we've never really learned much about Ethan Hunt's (Cruise) background, so he said he was very excited to be able to tackle that aspect of the character. He told us that this wasn't going to be like the other films in the sense that Hunt tears everything up by himself like a super agent, but he'll have a team again, just like the first 20 minutes of De Palmas "Mission", or more importantly, just like the old T.V. series - "Good guys tricking bad guys", Abrams called it.

The director really proved to us that he was the man for the job when he showed us a couple clips, one of which is the bridge sequence seen briefly in the trailer where an explosion sends Cruise flying into a nearby car. The entire sequence was very exciting, as jet planes were following Hunt on a civilian infested bridge, blowing up cars behind him with missiles. The only information given by this and another clip is that Phillip Seymour Hoffman is the new antagonist, and that there's a very important briefcase in the storyline of which Hunt would risk his life for. The film is out May 5th.