None of us can picture any actor but Tom Cruise playing Ethan Hunt or imagine IMF without Cruise’s character. However, there was a moment when the 61-year-old actor was almost replaced by Paramount Pictures. The Knight and Day actor is one of the greatest Hollywood actors, he knows how to reach success with hard work and his acting skills.
But, there was also a time when Cruise was making headlines because of many controversies. These controversies were the reason why the production company was averse to working with the actor in the future.
Jeremy Renner was about to replace Tom Cruise in the Mission Impossible film series
When Tom Cruise engaged himself in an argument on The Today Show over the validity of psychiatry, he immediately became part of a controversy. This controversy made Paramount Pictures almost decide to give the Top Gun actor a break from playing the character of Ethan Hunt. During a podcast, cinematographer Robert Elswit opened up about how the makers of the Mission Impossible series were ready to replace Cruise with some other actor. Reportedly, it was supposed to be Jeremy Renner. While talking about the 61-year-old actor, Elswit said,
“The original version of this movie was at the end of it Tom Cruise stops being Ethan Hunt the agent and becomes Ethan Hunt the Secretary. The whole version of this was they were gonna put another IMF Mission unit together with another actor — maybe it’s Jeremy Renner, who knows who it is — and they’re gonna go through this series of wild events, and at the end, Tom gets to be the Secretary and a new agent takes over the franchise.”
Soon The Mummy actor reportedly sat down with the production company and convinced them to let him stay the protagonist of the action film franchise. As the makers also knew the fans wouldn’t like someone else replacing Cruise in the movie they continued with Cruise as the lead actor.
Tom Cruise had to convince Jeremy Renner to join the Mission Impossible series
The Wind River actor played the character of William Brandt in the movies Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation. When the movie was offered to the 52-year-old actor by the makers of the action action-adventure movie, he reportedly rejected the offer. Soon, the Tag actor revealed that Cruise himself approached him to convince him to be a part of his blockbuster movie franchise. During an interview, Renner said, “It was a strange experience and an interesting meeting.”
The Town actor said the Jack Reacher actor came to his house to meet with him and persuade him to work on the film with him. Soon he said he was signed to do a movie with Cruise. People loved Renner’s character in both the movies from the series.
Source: The Things
