Mission: Impossible 8 with new name pushed to autumn 2025.

by Thinus Ferreira

Because of the Hollywood strike Paramount Pictures has now pushed out the premiere of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 8 by a year from 2024 to autumn 2025 with the film which will also get a new name.

Instead of June 2024, cinemagoers will have to wait a year longer for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2, which will also undergo a name change. 

Paramount announced the Mission: Impossible 8 date shift as part of a raft of cinema release date changes in its latest release schedule update to the industry.

Paramount Pictures and Skydance blame the ongoing and protracted SAG-AFTRA strike by Hollywood actors demanding a better ideal from the various Hollywood studios including Netflix, with Million: Impossible which had to shut down production similar to many other films and TV series.

Filming for the second part of Dead Reckoning took place worldwide in places like Norway and the United Kingdom and including South Africa, with Tom Cruise who jumped out of an aircraft in the South African skies.

Top Gun: Maverick lifts South Africa's box office up where it belongs as 35+ moviegoers return.

by Thinus Ferreira

Top Gun: Maverick, the Tom Cruise-led film sequel to 1986's Top Gun, has helped to lift the slumped South African box office back up where it belongs, to paraphrase the title of one of the Hans Zimmer songs in the movie - with the film's big nostalgia factor helping to lure back especially older South cinemagoers who've stayed away because of Covid.

South African exhibitors like Ster-Kinekor and Nu Metro are once again smiling, as the 35+ cinema crowd are venturing back into malls and cinemas to watch Top Gun: Maverick - pulled by the nostalgia factor of seeing Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer again as they did decades ago as kids.

"The performance of Top Gun: Maverick has been astounding and it certainly has given cinema a huge boost," Stefan Rheeder, United International Pictures (UIP) marketing manager, tells TVwithThinus.

"It feels as if ticketing is ticking over once more, but also that older audiences – when looking at Top: Gun Maverick and even Elvis – are frequenting cinema houses again and it shows a real sign of confidence for this out-of-home entertainment experience."

Stefan Rheeder says Top Gun: Maverick initially started playing towards "older, nostalgic audiences, but with a strong box office performance, we can now undoubtedly say that it has broken out to younger demographics too".

"For exhibitors, this must be music to their ears and they definitely want and need big tentpole titles to keep the experience front of mind, but also the business ticking over."

Next UIP will be releasing Beast on 12 August in South Africa, which Rheeder says proudly boasts a number of South African elements.

"Idris Elba stars in this pulse-pounding new thriller about a father and his two teenage daughters who find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the savannah has but one apex predator."

"Co-starring in the film alongside Elba is South African actor, Sharlto Copley together with Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries. The film was shot entirely in South Africa and locations included Cape Town, Limpopo and Northern Province."

The final showdown was filmed in the Northern Cape, on the Namibia border.

Then UIP is also bringing Puss in Boots: The Last Wish to South African cinemas lined up for the country's summer holiday in December when the leche-loving, swashbuckling and fear-defying feline returns to the big screen.

"For the first time in more than a decade, DreamWorks Animation presents a new adventure in the Shrek universe, as daring outlaw Puss in Boots discovers that his passion for peril and disregard for safety have taken their toll," Stefan Rheeder says.

"Puss has burned through eight of his nine lives, though he lost count along the way. Getting those lives back will send Puss in Boots on his grandest quest yet. Puss in Boots: The Last Wish features an all-star comedic cast that includes Academy Award nominee Antonio Banderas who returns as the voice of the notorious Puss in Boots."  

It's not about Xenu, but Tom Cruise has an important public service announcement about something that's wrong - with your TV.

I’m taking a quick break from filming to tell you the best way to watch Mission: Impossible Fallout (or any movie you love) at home. pic.twitter.com/oW2eTm1IUA

— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) December 4, 2018

It's not about Xenu, but Tom Cruise has taken time out to do a very important public service announcement (PSA) to warn people about something that's very wrong - with your television.

In a video posted on his Twitter stream, Tom Cruise, taking time out of filming the follow-up to Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick, appears alongside Chris McQuarrie, the director of Mission: Impossible - Fallout to please become aware of the "motion smoothing" effect that by default is switched to "on" on new-generation TV sets and to switch it off.

Motion smoothing, a term known as the "soap opera effect" because it makes TV content look like soapies, is not something ordinary consumers are aware of or understand, although it's something TV manufacturers sneak into their TV sets and out of the box toggle to the default on setting.

When TV viewers watch films, they can sometimes realise that something is "wrong" but don't know what, or how to fix it.

While motion smoothing sounds like a good thing - like conditioner for your hair - it's actually not. It helps with watching fast-moving sports content, but makes everything else, especially movies, actually look worse and not like directors, producers and the cast meant for them to be seen.

Let's get technical for a very short moment: Video interpolation is the digital video effect employed by TV manufacturers to improve the quality of high-definition sport.

Why? TV set manufacturers think men watching sport are the top buyers of big-screen TV sets. And retailers, to show off those vibrant colours and "action" on screen, mostly switch TV sets to sport channels in window displays and on store shelves.

Motion smoothing makes fast-moving sport action look even better (but everything else worse), especially films that come across as "too sped up".

Tom Cruise is far from the only person who are complaining about the motion smoothing function, with several Hollywood top directors who have railed against the setting for screwing up how their films look on TV and how the audience perceive it that is different from what they intended.

In the 87-second video Tom Cruise says "I'm taking a quick break from filming to tell you the best way to watch Mission: Impossible -Fallout or any movie you love at home."

Chris McQuarrie says "video interpolation or motion smoothing is intended to reduce motion blur in sporting events and other high-definition programming. Without a side-by-side comparison, most people can't quite put their figure on why the movie they're watching, looks strange".

Tom Cruise says "the unfortunate side-effect is that it makes most movies look like they were shot on high-speed video rather than film, sometimes referred to as the 'soap opera effect. Most HD TV's come with this feature already on by default, and turning it off requires navigating a set of menu's with interpolation often referred to by another brand name."

"Filmmakers are working with manufacturers to change the way video interpolation is activated on your television, giving you easier access and greater choice over when to use this feature."

Chris says "If you own a modern high-definition television, there's a good chance you're not watching movies the way that filmmakers intended, and the ability to do so, is not simple for you to access."

"A quick internet search should provide you with step-by-step instructions on how to quickly disable the feature so that you can enjoy the movie you are about to see, exactly as the filmmakers intended."