Mission: Impossible 7 director Christopher McQuarrie has shut down reports he destroyed a historical Polish landmark for an explosive scene in Tom Cruise's new movie.
Sources told media outlets the producers of the action movie were planning to blow up a 100-year-old bridge for one sequence, but the filmmaker has now come forward and insisted the rumours were nothing but lies from a disgruntled employee.
"One individual, for reasons I cannot specify without revealing their identity, claimed they were owed a job on the production, for which we felt they were not adequately qualified," Christopher wrote in a statement to Empire. "When this individual's demands were not met, they retaliated.
"After harassing members of our production publicly and anonymously on social media, as well as privately, this individual misrepresented our intentions and concealed their personal reasons for wanting to penalise us. In short, this individual manipulated the emotional response of the people in a move that has now compromised our ambitions to bring our production to Poland."
Christopher went on to insist the producers were blowing up an unused bridge to pave way for a revitalisation of the railroad system in the Eastern European country, not destroy a century-old historic landmark."
"The people we spoke to were excited by the prospect of our bringing a large film production to Poland and the resources it would inject into the local economy (Poland has just released a new film incentive program, and wanted a known project to promote its film industry)," he added. "They were also delighted that we'd be making way for a new bridge that might otherwise not be rebuilt, and might lead the government to revitalise the railroad line."
Mission: Impossible 7 just recently resumed filming after production was shut down back in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. The movie is scheduled to reach theatres next year.
