Brian Cox Says ‘We Have to Stop’ AI at Equity Rally in Support of SAG-AFTRA: ‘No One Is Exempt From This’

EXCLUSIVE: Tobias Menzies was hiding in plain sight at a rally held by UK actors union Equity in support of its sister union SAG-AFTRA.

It’s Day 8 of the SAG-AFTRA strike and Day 81 of the WGA strike.

A host of famous actors have joined forces to show their support with striking US Hollywood stars including Succession’s Brian Cox, Lord of the Rings actor Andy Serkis, Channel 4 sitcom star Simon Pegg and Harry Potter's Imelda Staunton.

Succession star Brian Cox has said the actors strike will “affect British Equity far worse than it will probably affect SAG-AFTRA.”

Some of Britain’s top stars including Brian Cox, Imelda Staunton and Simon Pegg are taking to the streets of London this afternoon in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA cause.

Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International “Succession” star Brian Cox and “Catastrophe’s” Rob Delaney are among the confirmed speakers at a London rally in support of the SAG-AFTRA strike. U.K. actors union Equity revealed plans earlier this week for two major demonstrations on Friday in solidarity with the actors strike. Twin rallies will take place at noon local time in London’s Leicester Square and in Manchester’s Media City. Speakers so far scheduled for the London rally include Cox and Delaney as well as “The Pact” and “Alex Rider” star Rakie Ayola, Equity general secretaries Paul W. Fleming and Lynda Rooke, and Bectu boss Philippa Childs. Member of Parliament John McDonnell is also set to speak.

Simon Pegg has already helped Tom Cruise save the world in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” this summer. So what’s next on his acting agenda? How about starring as a psychic detective investigating a talking mongoose? Sound a little too outlandish? Well, strap in, because “Nandor Fodor And The Talking Mongoose” is based on a true story.

Simon Pegg has discussed the increasing prevalence of AI in the film industry, suggesting that it could have upsides.In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, Pegg said he believes that AI “might be a good thing in that it will stop us from being mediocre.”He added: “There is a lot of mediocrity out there sometimes. Things that pass for entertainment are not quite as good as they should be.“So if it ups our game because we want to escape the velocity of this creeping threat, then it’s a good thing.”However, Pegg said he believes that something AI can’t replicate is the human process of working through drafts and slowly bringing together an idea and script for a film.“I think the writing process, it is a process, and when you write a first draft you write something that you know is going to improve and you will improve,” he said.“If we get AI to write those first drafts the whole time people are only ever going to be doctoring scripts or giving notes,” Pegg added.“There’s going to be no sort of genesis in them, no kind of heart.

“Mission Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One” and one of the revelations of the film, at least if you haven’t been paying attention over the years, is Haley Atwell, a huge scene stealer, who matches Tom Cruise beat for charming beat within the film. For many, she’s the real find and gem of the film, the discovery if you maybe haven’t seen much of the other work.

EXCLUSIVE: Hayley Atwell predicted that she’d be on strike now.

Todd Gilchrist editor Since “Mission: Impossible III” in 2006, Simon Pegg has been part of the core ensemble of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, playing hacker and sometime field agent Benji Dunn opposite its stalwart star Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt. Pegg was never going to be the actor risking life and limb on screen — “it’s Benji’s job to be the one that actually says, ‘what the fuck are we doing here?’,” he observes. But over five installments of the indefatigable series, his character has shifted from questioning what Ethan is doing in the moment to believing absolutely in why he’s doing it, thanks in no small part to the writing and directing of Christopher McQuarrie. McQuarrie came onto “Ghost Protocol” as “a sort of master plumber to re-wriggle the pipes,” as Pegg characterizes it, and since became the series’ ongoing co-architect with Cruise. Their partnership reaches its peak, even if by all indications it’s far from over, with “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” half of an operatic culmination of narrative seeds planted since Cruise first played Hunt back in 1996. In a conversation with Variety, Pegg discusses what makes McQuarrie’s creativity so special, and his collaboration with Cruise et al so unique; he also talks about new details he discovered about Benji, explored the challenges of being self-referential in a franchise like this without undermining emotional stakes, and hinted at what is yet to come as he and the rest of the filmmaking team move on to “Dead Reckoning — Part Two.”

Zack Sharf Digital News Director SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses the ending of “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” currently playing in theaters. “Dead Reckoning,” the seventh installment of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, is the latest Hollywood blockbuster to be split into two movies, but Tom Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie tried their hardest to give “Part One” a non-cliffhanger conclusion. The filmmaker recently told Total Film magazine that thinking about how to conclude the first of two movies kept Cruise up at night during the filming of “Part One.” “Where we ended the movie was always where we were going to end it,” McQuarrie said of the train action sequence. “How we ended the movie was a big, big mystery for us. It kept Tom awake at night throughout production. He would come in all the time and say, ‘This can’t be a cliffhanger, it’s got to be satisfying.’ The audience has to feel a sense of completion.”

Something that’s brought up in a new Happy Sad Confused podcast with “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning—Part One” star Hayley Atwell. The host of the podcast, Josh Horowitz, essentially says ‘Mission Impossible’ movies should not work.

Brent Lang Executive Editor “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” netted $8.3 million at the box office on Thursday, pushing the action sequel’s North American gross to $23.8 million after two days of release. The film, which finds Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt hurtling off cliffs, fighting knife-wielding bad guys on trains and evading pursuers while driving a Fiat through the streets of Rome, was incredibly expensive to produce. Shot during the pandemic (with all the attendant shutdowns, delays and health protocols that were a staple of the COVID era), the budget on the film ballooned to $290 million. So “Mission: Impossible” will need to generate a lot of repeat business if it’s going to turn a profit, and it needs to boom at the global box office.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Hayley Atwell is currently kicking butt in “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” but the Tom Cruise-led action tentpole is not the actor’s first go-around with a Hollywood mega-franchise. Atwell joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Peggy Carter in 2011’s “Captain America: The First Avenger.” It’s a role she would flesh out in two seasons of ABC’s “Agent Carter” series, before lending her voice to an alternate version of Peggy in Marvel’s Disney+ series “What If…?” Atwell’s Peggy Carter is a passionate fan favorite among Marvel lovers, which is why fans were so delighted when the character popped up as an alternate Captain America in 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and then made furious when she was almost immediately killed off by Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). In a new interview on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, Atwell called the cameo “a frustrating moment.”

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Rome’s iconic monuments are getting lots of mileage in Hollywood movies this summer. Since May, the Eternal City has hosted the world premieres of “Fast X” and “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One,” two blockbusters that burned rubber and wreaked havoc on its cobblestoned streets. Universal held its “Fast X” red carpet in the Roman Forum’s Temple of Venus, with the Colosseum as a backdrop, in early May. Weeks later, Paramount descended for the June premiere of “M:I 7,” with Tom Cruise prancing down the same Spanish Steps that serve as the setting for spectacular car chases in both movies.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has been released.Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, the first part follows Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his band of operatives as they chase down a key to deactivate a sentient AI device known as the “Entity”.Alongside returning cast members Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson and Vanessa Kirby, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One adds Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales and Pom Klementieff to the franchise.Lorne Balfe returns to compose the score for both parts of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning. He previously scored the sixth installment, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, while his other credits include Marvel’s Black Widow, Amazon series The Wheel Of Time and this year’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.You can stream the full soundtrack below.The original Mission: Impossible theme was written and composed by Lalo Schifrin in 1967.

Wondering if you should choose to accept the latest “Mission: Impossible” entry? Maybe you’re sick of all the bombast at the movie theatre lately? Well, put it another way: Do you really want to disappoint Tom Cruise?

Even Tom Cruise can’t believe some of the things he hears about himself. Cruise’s "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1" director, Chris McQuarrie, revealed in a new interview with the Times of London that the actor has heard some crazy rumors about himself, but was happy to debunk them. According to McQuarrie, he asked Cruise when they first met what the "weirdest story you’ve heard about yourself" was.  Cruise laughed and said it was the myth that people on set "were not allowed to look me in the eye." The first time the actor and director worked together was 2008’s "Valkyrie," and McQuarrie has directed Cruise in the last three "Mission: Impossible" films, as well as produced "Top Gun: Maverick." Simon Pegg, who joined the "Mission: Impossible" franchise in 2006’s "Mission: Impossible III," agreed that the stories surrounding Cruise are overblown.

Naman Ramachandran Disney releases “Elemental” and “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” were locked in a near dead heat at the U.K. and Ireland box office, with the animated elements edging out the veteran archaeologist. “Elemental” debuted with £3.049 million ($3.876 million), according to numbers from Comscore. In its second weekend, “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” whipped up £3.046 million ($3.873 million) for a close second and now has a total of £13.1 million. If looking at weekend numbers alone, Harrison Ford’s last adventure as the man in the hat won the race as the “Elemental” numbers include “limited secret sneak previews from across the market,” according to Disney.