Mission: Improbable

The term Mission: Impossible has just become an ironically apt moniker for the third instalment in the blockbusting franchise. Scheduled to begin filming in Berlin next month, the film is cocked, locked and ready to roll, with stars Tom Cruise, Scarlet Johansson, Kenneth Branagh, Carrie-Anne Moss and Ving Rhames all champing at the bit. Indeed, everything is present and accounted for except for the director, who has jumped ship and has left the project careering across the dual carriageway of pre-production without so much as a trained monkey at the wheel. Citing the oh-so-original 'creative differences' (which can account for anything from "we started out with the same thing in mind but we've just become different people. No, no it's not you. It's me" to "I signed on to direct a documentary about impoverished Albanian traffic wardens so why is that bloke from Vanilla Sky hanging around the set?") director Joe Carnahan has officially leapt from the speeding project and left Cruise et al well and truly buggered. The Narc director's departure sees studio bosses unfazed, however, and next month's proposed start date remains unchanged. You'd be right to point out that the director isn't the most redundant person on a film set but hopes are obviously high that an as yet unnamed replacement can be brought in at the 11th hour to take the project and mould it into something more akin to what the commercially astute studio bosses have in mind. "Yes, is that Mr Harlin? What's your calendar like for the next few months?"