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After delivering the biggest box office hit in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, Paramount Pictures is ready to continue being in business with director Christopher McQuarrie in a big way.

Sources tell Variety that McQuarrie has signed back on to return to write and direct the next two films in the popular franchise. Sources also add that both films would be shot back-to-back — not unlike the final two “Avengers” sequels — in order to take advantage of the popularity of the series, with the first bowing summer 2021 and the second coming out in summer 2022. The release comes in 2021 to avoid conflict with Paramount and Cruise’s next big venture, “Top Gun: Maverick.”

McQuarrie had said in recent interviews he was hoping to do something different and had been meeting on a handful of projects including Paramount’s “Without Remorse” starring Michael B. Jordan as John Clark. With the latest “Mission: Impossible” film grossing over $790 million worldwide, the best haul in the franchise to date, the studio knew they couldn’t let a good thing die and quickly moved to bring back McQuarrie to write and direct the next two installments.

McQuarrie will now look to start writing the script while Cruise continues to shoot “Top Gun: Maverick.” While no start date is set yet, sources indicate the studio would intend to start shooting sometime in 2019.

After years of switching up the director to give a new feel to each installment, Cruise and Paramount have now settled on McQuarrie as the primary director for Ethan Hunt’s globetrotting adventures. The move bears similarities to when Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling tapped David Yates to stay on and finish out the “Harry Potter” series following his first stint on “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

The most recent “Mission: Impossible” installment, “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” was also the best-reviewed entry with a Rotten Tomatoes score of 97%.

McQuarrie is repped by CAA and Ken Kamins.

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EXCLUSIVE: Paramount has given release dates for the next two installments of Mission: Impossible: July 23, 2021 and Aug. 5, 2022.

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EXCLUSIVE: Holt McCallany (Mindhunter) has signed on for a role in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two. He joins an ensemble led by Tom Cruise, which also includes Hayley Atwell, Shea Whigham and Pom Klementieff, as previously announced.

Part Two is the eight title in a franchise of spy actioners centered on Cruise’s Impossible Missions Force agent Ethan Hunt, who with his team has embarked on assorted globe-trotting missions to avert global disaster. While the plot of the pic discussed as a potential franchise ender has thus far been kept under wraps, Christopher McQuarrie has returned to direct from his own script, after mounting Dead Reckoning Part One. In the new film, McCallany will play Secretary of Defense Bernstein.

Cruise and McQuarrie are producing for Paramount Pictures, with David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger and Chris Brock serving as exec producers. The release dates for both parts of Dead Reckoning have been delayed multiple times by the Covid pandemic, with Part One now set for July 14, 2023 and Part Two set for June 28, 2024.

McCallany is perhaps best known for his role as FBI Special Agent Bill Tench on Netflix’s Emmy-nominated drama series Mindhunter, examining the early days of criminal profiling. He stars opposite Courtney B. Vance on AMC’s legal drama 61st Street, which has been renewed for a second season, and has also been seen on Lights Out, among many other series.

The actor was most recently seen on the film side in Guillermo del Toro’s Searchlight feature Nightmare Alley, opposite Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett, also appearing opposite Jason Statham in Guy Ritchie’s Wrath of Man. He is repped by Buchwald, Atlas Artists and attorney Rick Genow.

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