Paramount halts Mission: Impossible shoot over coronavirus

By: AP | New York | Updated: February 25, 2020 3:14:56 pm

Tom Cruise returns as Agent Ethan Hunt for Mission Impossible 7. (Photo: Chiabella James/Paramount Pictures and Skydance via AP) Paramount Pictures on Monday halted production on the seventh Mission: Impossible film due to the new virus, as Hollywood began to more drastically adapt to the growing global outbreak.

Mission: Impossible 7 had been scheduled to shoot for three weeks in Venice. More than 200 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Italy, the largest number outside Asia. While most of those cases are in the neighboring Lombardy region, authorities said three people in Venice have tested positive for the virus.

In a statement, Paramount cited the Venetian government’s halting of public gatherings, and said it was cancelling the shoot “out of an abundance of caution for the safety and well-being of our cast and crew.”