Credit: MUBI / Gabriel Hutchinson Photography

Joe Taysom@josephtaysom

Wed 24 September 2025 15:05, UK

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One Battle After Another director Paul Thomas Anderson has shared his regret about not having the opportunity to direct Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible.

After eight movies, the Mission: Impossible franchise seemingly reached a blockbuster conclusion earlier this year with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, which saw Cruise deliver one final performance as Ethan Hunt.

From the fifth instalment onwards, filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie has been in the director’s chair for the Mission: Impossible movies, and Anderson has now revealed he’d have loved the opportunity to have been involved.

During a new interview with the French publication, Le Figaro, Anderson said about a reunion with Cruise as part of the Mission: Impossible series, “I would have loved to, but I never got his call. I was very disappointed. I think he’s done with Mission: Impossible, so it won’t happen.”

Notably, Anderson and Cruise worked together on Magnolia, which arrived in cinemas in 1999. However, they have yet to work together again.

During an interview with Rolling Stone in 2000, Anderson heaped immense praise on Cruise, stating, “Tom Cruise is the fucking greatest of all time, ever, ever, EVER.”

He also said of being able to secure Cruise’s services for Magnolia, “It’s like, no kid thinks he’s going to be president of the United States, you know what I mean? No kid thinks he’s going to get Tom Cruise in his movie.”

Anderson’s new feature, One Battle After Another, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Benicio del Toro, Teyana Taylor, and Chase Infiniti, is set to arrive on September 26th.

In a four-and-a-half-star review, Far Out wrote of the movie: “One Battle After Another is a trip with intense action, even honouring 1980s ‘muscle action’ in certain moments. There are plenty of car chases and shootouts to thrill, and when paired with Jonny Greenwood’s score, the intensity of that side of the film’s dual mode is stepped up even further.”

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