Christopher McQuarrie Will Direct Mission: Impossible 5

The Mission: Impossible franchise seems to be one of those franchises that just keeps coming back, mostly due to the power and prestige of Tom Cruise and his apparent inability to anchor any other franchise. He made a go of it with Jack Reacher, but that didn’t exactly fly. That being said, the guy who directed Jack Reacher is coming on board for Mission: Impossible 5 now, proving that Cruise sticks with his friends.

Christopher McQuarrie decided to come out with the news of his directorial ascension by announcing it himself via Twitter:

Mission: Accepted

— ChristopherMcQuarrie (@chrismcquarrie) August 5, 2013

I’ve got to say: that’s a cool way to announce your next gig.

At first I was rather skeptical at director Christopher McQuarrie’s very limited directorial filmography, which so far includes Jack Reacher and The Way of the Gun, a 2000 crime action film that starred Ryan Phillippe. But a look across McQuarrie’s writing credentials and a much more optimistic picture emerges. He wrote both the Tom Cruise vehicle Valkyrie and The Usual Suspects. He’s also the man behind the scripts of Jack The Giant Killer, The Tourist and the recent adaptation of All You Need Is Kill (also starring Cruise), now retitled the less ridiculous Edge of Tomorrow. While those last few films might not inspire confidence, at least McQuarrie has a few good films back in his filmography.

What does McQuarrie’s presence mean for Mission: Impossible 5? Well, we can’t really say at the moment. He has some big shoes to fill in replacing director Brad Bird, who gave us the best Mission: Impossible film in a long time. Hopefully McQuarrie can keep Bird’s momentum going – perhaps keeping some of Cruise’s co-stars from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – and reign in Cruise’s tendency to do stunts that don’t mean much in the arc of the film. 

What do you think of McQuarrie coming on board to direct Mission: Impossible 5? Great idea?