Earlier this week, we reported on the news that Tom Cruise had injured himself while performing a stunt for the upcoming Mission: Impossible 6. The videos from TMZ saw the star jumping from one building to the next, while on harness, and in two takes, we saw him slam into the side. In one take, he hit the wall and then fell backwards the way he came, being held up by the harness, and in another, he manages to pull himself up, though when making his way back to the other side, he’s seen limping and accepting the assistance of the crew.

RELATED: Tom Cruise Injured On Set Of Mission: Impossible 6

However, in a recent interview with Empire, the film’s director, Christopher McQuarrie, put a stop to speculation that him slamming into the side of the building was the result of him “missing.”

Here’s what he had to say:

“The speculation was that Tom had somehow missed or fell short. The truth is that the stunt was never designed for Tom to jump from rooftop to rooftop which a) would have been pretty boring and b) when you see the actual shot you’ll understand how it was designed. Also, when you look at what was posted on the internet, you can see Tom do the same stunt multiple times. He was always supposed to slam into the side of the building. That’s what gives the stunt its energy. He was completely safe the entire time he was doing that. He was padded. What happened is a matter of coordinating what Tom is doing with what the camera is doing, which means you have to do it a number of times. And on the fourth try, he hit the building at a slightly different angle and he broke his ankle. He knew the instant that he hit the building that his ankle was broken. You can see it on his face. We had four cameras rolling on it, and you can see it on the video that’s on the internet. He knew in that instant, ‘well, we’re not coming back here. We’re not doing this again today’. So he got up and powered through the shot, and then he got off-camera and as soon as he knew he was off-camera he went down. He knew that was the only way to preserve the shot. I don’t know that I would have the wherewithal to do that.”

Specifics aside, that doesn’t stop Tom Cruise from being injured. But would this be enough to delay production of the film? Turns out, yes. The production of the film will go on a hiatus while he makes a recovery.

So what does this mean for the movie itself? It’s currently slated for a July 27, 2018, but will this hiatus result in a delay? According to the outlet, Paramount is fully intending to keep that street date.

That’s an interesting move from the studio. Had they opted to continue production of scenes that do not include Tom Cruise, I can see them hitting it, but given that they’ve halted production, it seems a bit strange. That being said, when hitting crunch times, filmmakers have been known to go above and beyond the call to action, hitting ridiculous deadlines under strenuous circumstances, and it sounds like they have a plan.

Regarding their strategy for moving forward, McQuarrie stated:

“We’ll assess what there is to be shot. And what we can shoot, and then what we’ll do is once we’ve shot through that we’ll go on a hiatus and then I’ll shift my attention over to editorial. We’ve already shot a huge chunk of the movie so you’re just taking a big chunk of post-production and moving it up sooner. Then we go back to shooting when the hiatus is over, which is to the full benefit of the movie. It’s similar to situations I’ve had on other movies where, for whatever reason, you go on hiatus and you’re able to look at the movie in a way you normally couldn’t and reevaluate. The lesson I learned on Valkyrie, which had its share of difficulties in production, and we always used to say ‘disaster is an opportunity to excel’.”

We’ll have to wait and see, but it’s not like movies haven’t overcome issues like these in the past.

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SOURCE: Deadline, Empire