Tom Cruise’s 'Mission: Impossible 7' Covid Delays Cost Studio Tens Of Millions, Paramount Sues Insurer For Refusing To Pay Up
Tom Cruise famously lost it on the set of Mission: Impossible 7 after the film had to be shut down multiple times due to Covid, and it appears he might have been feeling pressure from the studio execs to get the film on track.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, Paramount Pictures is suing Federal Insurance Company over its refusal to pay up on a policy they took out for the production of MI7.
The studio says they purchased an insurance policy against losses resulting from delays and interruptions of the film. Paramount say the film is a big budget flick with a ton of money on the line so they took out a massive $100,000,000 policy.
The suit says the production had to be shut down several times due to Covid-19 threats and “the orders of civil authorities restricting or preventing the production from continuing as planned.”
The company says they lost “significant losses” as a result which should be covered under their policy. Paramount says when they went to collect on the policy their claim was denied. Paramount says the insurance company only offered to pay $5 million and “unjustifiably refused to cover other losses altogether.”
The suit read, “Ultimately, Federal paid only a small portion of Paramount’s losses, denying coverage for the majority of them. By doing so, Federal breached the parties’ contract. Furthermore, Federal acted unreasonably, choosing to favor its interests over those of its insured, tortiously breaching the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing.”
Paramount says Federal was well aware of Covid-19 and the risk of the pandemic shutting the production down.
The suit explains production was originally set to start on February 24, 2020 but shut down days before due to a production member testing positive. The film moved the start date to March 2020, but the government then imposed a quarantine. Production resumed in July 2020.
A couple of months later in October, during production in Rome, an outbreak of Covid-19 hit the crew and forced production to shut down for a the third time. The crew then moved the film to Venice in October 2020.
However, days later, the set was closed down again after more crew members tested positive. The film tried again in February 13, 2021 in London.
However, another outbreak happened and shut down the film for the fifth time. The crew tried again in Abu Dhabi but were shut down because they were non-UK citizens. In June 2021, they shut down again after more positive tests.
Paramount says they were shut down seven times over 18 months. The suit is demanding the court order Federal to enforce their policy and cough up the cash.
