'Mission: Impossible 7' to recommence filming in September after coronavirus shutdown

Mission: Impossible 7 is to kick off filming again in September, after it was shutdown in February due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Tommy Gormley, the movie's first assistant director, told the Today program on Radio 4 that cameras are set to roll again in the autumn.

“We hope to start shooting again in September. We were days from shooting in Venice — we were right at the epicentre when it all kicked off — so we had to shut down in Venice where we were four or five days from shooting,” he said.

Read more: The movies set to come out post-lockdown

“We hope to restart in September, we hope to visit all the countries we planned to and look to do a big chunk of it back in the UK on the backlot and in the studio, so September through to end April/May is our targets. We are convinced we can do this.”

Actor Simon Pegg, who plays IMF agent Benji Dunn in the action franchise, says the shoot will resume in the fresh air to begin with.

“That will begin with the outdoor stuff. That feels fairly doable, and obviously there will be precautions put in place,” Pegg tells Variety.

“People that are involved in any close proximity stuff, it will have to be determined that they’re safe to do that. I don’t know what the testing situation is, how that works, or whether they’ll be able to be tested regularly.”

Mission: Impossible 7, which finds Tom Cruise back as agent Ethan Hunt, was the first major movie casualty of the lockdown.

Northern Italy was initially among the hardest hit regions of Europe as the coronavirus travelled into Europe from Asia.

Gormley also added that the recently announced guidelines from the British Film Commission, released yesterday and which will set in place the restarting of filming for movies and TV in the UK, were 'excellent'.

Read more: How will social distancing work in cinemas?

“We have to get back to work for every person in the film industry, tens of thousands of us, we have to get back to work. We have to do it safely and protect our colleagues, but it is definitely possible and we’re working flat out to make it happen,” he went on.

The 44-page document has been written in conjunction with the BFI, and puts in place instructions for social distancing and other protocols.

Among them are reducing the instances of filming crowd scenes, close face-to-face filming with actors, and other guidelines for everything from transport to hair and make-up.