The new Mission: Impossible film nearly featured a cameo from a huge A-list star – but the plan was ditched as the scene would have been too “distracting” and expensive.
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is currently in cinemas and sees Tom Cruise return as Ethan Hunt for the seventh time.
Director Christopher McQuarrie previously revealed that he thought about filming a prologue scene set in 1989.
In order to make the sequence convincing, he would have utilised AI technology to de-age the franchise’s leading man.
Going into further detail, he’s now revealed in a new interview that he wanted to cast another Hollywood star to play Tom’s love interest in the scene.
He told Empire’s Spoiler Special podcast: “I looked back [to see] who was the ingenue, who was the breakout star in 1989? And right around then was Mystic Pizza.
“And I was like, ‘Oh my God. Julia Roberts, a then-pre-Pretty Woman Julia Roberts, as this young woman’.”
As if de-aging two stars wouldn’t have been difficult enough, the scene Christopher dreamed up also would have featured Mission: Impossible’s Esai Morales and Henry Czerny, who played villain Gabriel and Eugene Kittridge, respectively.
He continued: “And of course, as you’re conceptually going through it, you’re like, ’Now all anybody’s going to be doing is thinking about the de-aging.”
Referencing Dead Reckoning Part One’s train wreck showdown, he added: “I got the bill for de-aging those people before their salaries were even factored into it.
“And if you put two of them in a shot together, or three of them in a shot together, it would have been as expensive as the train by the time we were done.”
De-aging has been used on a number of high-profile stars in recent years.
Netflix’s Oscar-nominated drama The Irishman and Star Wars spin-off The Mandalorian made use of the technology, while the latest Indiana Jones film featured a de-aged Harrison Ford.
Hollywood’s use of AI is a hot topic amid the actors’ strike. The union, which represents everyone from major stars to extras, is asking studios to guarantee AI and computer-generated faces won’t replace real actors.
Productions including the new series of American Horror Story, the Wicked film adaptation and the latest Deadpool movie, are on hold due to the strike.
Filming has also been delayed on many more as writers are on the picket lines too.
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is in cinemas now.