Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 7 Involved In Massive Lawsuit
Tom Cruise is getting back money due to the production of Mission: Impossible 7.
This article is more than 2 years old
The upcoming Tom Cruise movie Mission: Impossible 7 is suing its insurance company alleging that it’s only covering a fraction of the costs brought up by numerous COVID-19-related production shutdowns.
Deadline reports that the Tom Cruise-led action film’s studio, Paramount, filed a breach of contract lawsuit in California federal court on Monday against Chubb, the company that took on the unfortunate task of insuring the movie that has been waylaid seven times by coronavirus shutdowns in various countries. The company reportedly gave Paramount a policy with a $100 million cap on it that was meant to cover losses that came up from key cast or crew member illnesses.
While Paramount argues that the shutdowns fall under the proper category to be insured, given that all of them were arguably an attempt to prevent Tom Cruise and other key figures to the production of Mission: Impossible 7 from getting sick, the company thinks differently. It feels that the shutdowns fall under the category of a government mandate, which it only insures to the tune of $1 million. The court documents don’t state how much Paramount is looking for, but it says that what it’s willing to pay is not nearly enough.
It’s worth noting that one of the shutdowns took place because a key cast member got sick. However, the 22-page court filing does not name whether that cast member was Tom Cruise or not. It also doesn’t specify whether he or she was sick with COVID-19 or something else. Regardless, that undoubtedly fell under the illness bit of the Paramount and Chubb insurance policy deal, prompting the company to shell out $5 million for the delay. However, there are still six other production delays that both have to contend with — and it seems they’ll be doing so in a court of law.
Variety reports that production was initially set to begin in Venice, Italy on Feb. 24, 2020. Unfortunately for Tom Cruise and the rest of the production team, a ban on large public gatherings at the time meant that things had to be delayed. However, the lawsuit notes that production was actually the result of the cast member getting sick, meaning the studio may not have been honest with the public at the time. Production was halted again in March of 2020 and pushed to July. Things were going somewhat smoothly until another shutdown was forced in October of that year when two separate outbreaks swept the production in Rome and Venice.
Things seemingly resumed in December, when Tom Cruise famously went on an expletive-filled rant on set. According to audio leaked from The Sun, the actor really laid into two crew members that he saw breaking the set’s COVID-19 protocols. He laid the entire entertainment industry at their feet, noting that he is on the phone every night with studios, insurance companies and other key figures who were looking at the Mission: Impossible 7 production as a litmus test for what productions can look like in the age of the coronavirus.
“You can tell it to the people who are losing their f—ing homes because our industry is shut down,” Tom Cruise shouted in dramatic fashion. “It’s not going to put food on their table or pay for their college education. That’s what I sleep with every night – the future of this f—ing industry! So I’m sorry, I am beyond your apologies. I have told you, and now I want it, and if you don’t do it, you’re out. We are not shutting this f—ing movie down!”
Unfortunately, despite how clear Tom Cruise was about what was at stake for the Mission: Impossible 7 cast and crew, production halted two more times in February of 2021 when cases skyrocketed in the U.K. and again in June of 2021 when another outbreak swept the set.
Regardless of the hiccups and ensuing lawsuit, Tom Cruise is set to reprise his role as Ethan Hunt for a seventh time in its new, significantly later release date of May 27, 2022.
