'Mission: Impossible 6' shoot faces significant delay while Tom Cruise recovers from stunt injury

Mission: Impossible 6 may just have been dealt a serious blow, in the form of Tom Cruise's on-set injury.

Over the weekend, the star broke his ankle during a stunt. Now, Variety reports the production will halt for somewhere between six weeks to three months while Cruise recovers.

Paramount hasn't confirmed the length of the hiatus, saying only:

During production on the latest Mission: Impossible film, Tom Cruise broke his ankle while performing a stunt. Production will go on hiatus while Tom makes a full recovery, and the film remains on schedule to open July 27, 2018.  Tom wants to thank you all for your concern and support and can't wait to share the film with everyone next summer.

Video footage from the set, published by TMZ, shows Cruise jumping off a bit of scaffolding and slamming into the side of a building. Director Christopher McQuarrie explained to Empire that while Cruise was always supposed to crash into the building, "he hit the building at a slightly different angle" during one execution of the stunt.

"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," continued McQuarrie. "He knew that was the only way to preserve the shot. I don’t know that I would have the wherewithal to do that."

According to Variety's sources, Cruise hurt his hip and broke his ankle in two places during the mishap.

Cruise is famous for performing many of his own stunts, especially the most dangerous-looking ones – like the Burj Khalifa climb in Ghost Protocol and the underwater sequence in Rogue Nation.

But accidents happen, even under the best of circumstances, and recent tragedies on the sets of Deadpool 2 and The Walking Dead have called attention to the very real risks of shooting those thrilling stunts.

Cruise, fortunately, is expected to recover fully. Still unclear is how the hiatus might impact the film's release date. With Cruise out of commission, other cast and crew members might find their own schedules rearranged – which could be an issue if they've got other things to get to.

For what it's worth though, McQuarrie isn't worried about it. "I’m not at all concerned about what this is going to do to our release date," he said. As of now, Mission: Impossible 6 is still slated to open on July 27, 2018.

And yes, you will see Cruise's real injury in it. "I now have to move heaven and earth to make sure that the shot is in the movie," said McQuarrie. "We went to all that effort to get it. It’s a pretty fantastic shot."