What is Tom Cruise Doing In South Africa?
It's always exciting when Hollywood lands on Cape Town, and the newest batch of stars to arrive includes none other than Tom Cruise.
It's been 25 years since the first Mission Impossible film, in which the fictitious figure Ethan Hunt appeared on the big screen. Years later, the action spy blockbuster is set to shoot the eighth chapter next month in Cape Town and Durban. According to insiders in the movie industry, American actor and producer Tom Cruise, as well as other cast members, would come soon on African shores.
According to the Weekend Argus, the film team will arrived in Durban on February 6 and then fly to the Mother City to record more sequences. The announcement was met with great enthusiasm, as it represents yet another significant boost for the City of Cape Town (COCT), which has already authorized 1 017 film shoot licenses, 181 for the month of January alone.
David Maynier, the Western Cape Minister of Finance and Economic Opportunities, went on to say that foreign travel has grown dramatically since the discovery of the Omicron variety, which threw the economy into chaos when various travel bans were implemented.
According to Wesgro, this is a significant economic boost for the Western Cape region, since several foreign films and television programs are planned for the next year.
Meanwhile, the COCT has released a new image library with over 1300 images and videos of locations throughout the city, which will help location scouts, location managers, and international producers identify potential locations for their pre-production phase – implying that we're in for even more movie magic.
Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, says the forthcoming peak season for filming is just around the horizon, and the City, in collaboration with Film Cape Town, is striving to promote the local film industry.
Smith stated that the opening of the film locations library is simply one of the first stages in the City's long-term effort to help this billion-rand sector recover after a difficult months.
Cruz starred in a series of American action spy films beginning in 1996 as "Ethan Hunt," an agent of forces sent to difficult assignments.
Filming venues for earlier films have included Paris, London, New Zealand, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates.
