Angela Bassett Joins Tom Cruise in ‘Mission: Impossible 6’

Angela Bassett has joined Tom Cruise in Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible 6” to play the director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Filming of the sequel began April 8 in Paris with Christopher McQuarrie directing from his own script. Producers are J.J. Abrams, Bryan Burk, Tom Cruise, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger.

Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Alec Baldwin and Sean Harris are reprising their roles from previous “Mission: Impossible” films while Henry Cavill, Vanessa Kirby and Sian Brooke have come on board as new characters. Paramount has set a July 27, 2018 release date.

Bassett took a similar role as director of the U.S. Secret Service in the 2016 action-thriller “London Has Fallen.”

Bassett will be seen next in Marvel-Disney’s “Black Panther” playing Ramonda opposite Chadwick Boseman in the title role. “Black Panther” opens on Feb. 16. She recently stared in Spike Lee’s “Chi-raq.”

She’s also expected to star in “911,” a procedural drama from Ryan Murphy. Murphy and longtime collaborator Brad Falchuck are set to executive produce the drama, an “ER”-style procedural about 911 operators.

Bassett starred in four seasons of “American Horror Story” — “Coven,” “Freak Show,” “Hotel” and “Roanoke.” She is repped by Gersh, Lighthouse Entertainment and Fox Rothschild. The news was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

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