Earlier in the week, Mission: Impossible 7 found itself under fire after reports began surfacing that production planned to blow up a bridge that Polish locals consider to be a “monument.” The film franchise is known for its infamously realistic stunts that could place Tom Cruise’s life into all kinds of danger. Seriously, it’s a miracle he’s still in one piece.
However, Polish officials were quick to point out that characterizing an old bridge as “monument” was not an accurate description and was stirring up unnecessary controversy. “I would not be fixated on the fact that the Pilchowicki Bridge is a monument,”Deputy Culture Minister Pawel Lewandowski told The Independent. “It stands in ruins and has no value. Not all old things are monuments.”
Now, writer/director Christopher McQuarrie has entered the fray, and in a twist worthy of the spy film franchise, there appears to be nefarious forces working in the shadows. In a rare open letter published in Empire, McQuarrie details how the production reached an “enthusiastic” agreement to blow up a bridge in Poland that was already in need of demolition. Blowing it up for a stunt was actually doing local officials a favor as it would pave the way for a new railway bridge that could potentially boost tourism. But according to McQuarrie within his letter, a disgruntled individual tried to sideline the stunt in an act of vengeance:
One individual, for reasons I cannot specify without revealing their identity, claimed they were owed a job on the production for which we felt they were not adequately qualified.
When this individual’s demands were not met, they retaliated.
After harassing members of our production publicly and anonymously on social media, as well as privately, this individual misrepresented our intentions and concealed their personal reasons for wanting to penalize us. They even tried to have this condemned, unsafe and unusable bridge landmarked in the hopes of preventing it from ever being removed and rebuilt (which we understand would be to the detriment of the area’s economic needs). Then they reached out to us to gloat about it. In short, this individual manipulated the emotional response of the people in a move that has now compromised our ambitions to bring our production to Poland.
Despite the recent controversy, McQuarrie states that he still plans to bring Mission: Impossible 7 to Poland and, hopefully, destroy a fair chunk of this bridge with the blessing of local officials.
(Via Empire)
