[imagesource: Samantha Zucchi/Insidefoto]

It’s been a tough year for the film and television industry, and those of us who rely on it to produce binge-watchable content.

My social life is mostly Netflix these days. We’re ‘besties’ now.

Tom Cruise clearly has a lot of feelings about this (the pandemic and the industry, not my viewing habits), which he expressed in a way that only he can, on the set of Mission: Impossible 7

His angry outburst came after he spotted a couple of crew members standing too close to each other near a computer screen at Leavesden Studios in the UK.

Here’s The Guardian:

The Sun published an audio recording of Cruise shouting and swearing at film crew on the project, of which is he one of the producers, threatening instant dismissal of anyone found to be contravening [physical] distancing rules.

Settle in for the COVID-19 edition of that couch-jumping episode on Oprah’s show all those years ago:

Tell us how you really feel, Tom.

Like pretty much all major Hollywood productions, Mission: Impossible 7 was delayed by shutdowns during the pandemic.

Filming in Italy was halted in February after public gatherings were banned during the first wave of COVID-19. In July, permission was granted to resume production in the UK after Cruise personally appealed to culture secretary Oliver Dowden.

Then, in October, a positive COVID-19 test on set delayed things again.

Cruise sees the production as a model for how Hollywood can continue to work under pandemic conditions, hence the “we’re setting the gold standard” portion of the rant.

A couple of celebs have come out in support of him, including George Clooney, who says that the motivation behind the outburst was a good one, but that he would have handled things a bit differently.

You know, without threatening and terrifying his crew into submission.

NASA is working with Tom Cruise to film the first movie shot in space. I guess if he wants physical distancing, leaving the planet entirely is about as distanced as you can get.

[source:guardian]