Your mission, should you choose to accept it: film a Hollywood blockbuster in the middle of a pandemic. On a cruise ship.
This could very well be the part star Tom Cruise was born to play. Or named for, at least.
The latest outing of the Mission Impossible franchise has chartered two ships from the company Hurtigruten during filming in Norway.
Tom Cruise, who is producing and acting in the films as special agent Ethan Hunt has personally bankrolled the project, according to Forbes, paying $1million (US$ 700,000) out of his own pocket.
The filming which was stalled by the coronavirus pandemic, shut down productions in February just as filming began in Italy.
The globetrotting movie series which is famous for its exotic filming locations has stopped and started in London, Italy and now Norway. The Møre og Romsdal area is famous for fjords and glaciers which - until recently - drew cruise passengers from all over the world.
The cruise company confirmed rumours that the blockbuster was using theirs ships, MS Fridtjof Nansen and MS Versteralen, to the local newspaper Verdens Gang.
Hurtigruten were among the first cruise lines to return to service only to suspend sailings again in July, after 41 crew and 21 guests tested positive for Covid 19 on the MS Roald Amundsen.
The Daily Mail has reported that the entire cast and crew have been tested for the disease before arriving on set in Norway. With help from the Norwegian Government the filmmakers were given an exemption to the 10-day quarantine period normally required of international arrivals.
While the cost of hiring the ships is a large Cruise has landed a bargain. With a six day itinerary costing on the two 500-passenger ships costing upwards of $1300, the action star and associates have got excellent rates.
In July Euromonitor forecast intake of the US$71-billion-a-year cruise industry would fall by 50 per cent this year.
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