Cruise to resume filming in Mission: Impossible ‘bubble’
TOM CRUISE has been told he will be able to resume filming of the latest Mis
sion: Impossible films due to a new exemption in Covid-19 quarantine rules, The Sunday Telegraph understands.
Guidance to be published this week will exempt essential cast and crew working on international film and “high-end” television productions from the 14-day isolation requirement for those travelling from many countries abroad.
Under the rules, those exempted will have to operate within a “bubble” comprising only their accommodation and production location – preventing them going to public places, such as pubs.
The move comes after filming of the seventh and eighth instalments of Mis
sion: Impossible stalled as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown in the
UK. The cast and crew had earlier been forced to halt filming in Venice, following outbreaks in Italy in February.
Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, is understood to have spoken to Cruise last week about how the new exemption would allow filming of Mis
sion: Impossible 7 and 8 to resume at
Warner Bros Studios Leavesden in Hertfordshire.
Cruise reportedly flew to the UK last month, hours before the initial travel quarantine came into force.
On Friday, the Government released a list of 74 countries and territories exempted from the rules, including many EU states but not the US. Mr Dowden said: “The world’s biggest blockbusters and high-end TV shows are made in Britain. Our creativity, expertise and highly successful tax reliefs for our screen industries means that we are an in-demand location that in turn delivers a great return for our economy.
“We want the industry to bounce back and exempting small numbers of essential cast and crew from quarantine is part of our continued commitment to getting cameras rolling safely again. This is welcome news not just for film lovers but the thousands employed across the screen industries and the sectors they support.”
At the end of Nabokov’s book Despair, the typically awful hero plots his escape from the police by telling bystanders that he is in a film and the policemen are extras – and therein lies a great wheeze for escaping the last of the lockdown.
The Government has told Tom Cruise he can film the latest Mission:Impossible movie thanks to an exception from the rules on quarantine for international film-making. So, if one wants to deflect the suspicions of nosy neighbours, the way around it might be to be explain that you are not “breaking the rules” but taking part in a very important movie. And if they would only cut their side of the hedge once in a while and stop letting their children kick footballs into your garden, you might – might – give them an autograph.