'Mission: Impossible' and Cruise Control: Watch Exclusive Clip From 'De Palma' Documentary
Brian De Palma has given us some of cinema’s most scintillating modern thrillers, from the Stephen King-based teen horror of Carrie to the Hitchcock-inspired suspense of Dressed to Kill and Body Double. His imposing oeuvre gets a suitably adoring tribute courtesy of Noah Baumbach and Jake Paltrow’s documentary De Palma, out now in limited release. In a Yahoo Movies exclusive clip (watch it above), the director shares a behind-the-scenes story about one of his biggest box-office successes: the original 1996 Tom Cruise-led Mission: Impossible.
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Chalking it up to being in “the right place at the right time,” De Palma talks about his motivation for taking on the project, which amounted to him being “determined to make a huge hit.” Given that there was no bigger star in the world at the time than Cruise, Mission: Impossible was a no-brainer for the director to embrace. However, as he explains, Cruise’s clout, coupled with the fact that this was the actor’s first producing venture, meant that he was free to exert his influence on every facet of production. De Palma describes how this played out in regards to the movie getting the final go-ahead, the script, and screenwriter David Koepp’s ongoing role in honing it to Cruise’s satisfaction.
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It’s a brief but compelling peek at the inner workings of a blockbuster studio venture, as well as a quick example of the many fascinating stories that De Palma recounts in compellingly candid fashion in De Palma, in theaters now.
‘De Palma’: Watch the trailer: