Mission: Impossible filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie is reportedly joining forces with Taylor Sheridan for Sicario 3 in some capacity – though who will direct isn’t yet clear.
After several months of uncertainty, September brought the news that a third Sicario movie is finally getting going, with reports that production company Black Label Media was close to putting a deal together.
It now looks as though Sicario 3 – or whatever it ends up being called – is gathering pace, as Collider reports that the script is almost finished, and that screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, who wrote the first two films, is being joined on the project by Mission: Impossible writer-director Christopher McQuarrie.
The news comes from producers Molly Smith and Trent Luckinbill, who are also executives at the aforementioned Black Label. While on the promotional run for their latest film, Reptile, Smith told Collider, “We don’t know who’s going to direct yet,” adding, “it’s all gonna be about timing.”
“We’ve obviously got a wealth of great partners on it,” continued Smith; “everybody from Taylor Sheridan to Chris McQuarrie is a partner on it, but it’ll all be about the timing and what aligns on everyone’s schedule.”
What isn’t clear is in what capacity McQuarrie is involved in the Sicario sequel. Luckinbill notes that Sheridan is “so busy” at present with his highly successful Yellowstone series, and it sounds as though the producers are keeping their options open to some degree. It isn’t clear whether the ‘almost finished’ script is being written by Sheridan or McQuarrie, or perhaps both in tandem, but the suggestion appears to be that either filmmaker could direct the film itself depending on who’s free nearer production.
“…it’s just a question of when we get schedules lined up and all of that starting to have real conversations to see who’s available and who wants to do it,” Luckinbill said. “So certainly, I think everybody that’s ever been involved with this has stayed really close and has stayed fans of it. So, we’ll just push forward and see what lines up and who lines up in our window.”
Denis Villeneuve directed the original Sicario (2015), a simmering thriller about the FBI and CIA’s involvement in the drug trade on the Texas-Mexico border, with his typical style and restraint. Its more violent sequel, Sicario: Day Of The Soldado, was made by Italian filmmaker Stefano Sollima, and saw the first film’s Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin return as stern CIA enforcers.
Sicario 3 will reportedly reunite Brolin and del Toro with Emily Blunt, who previously appeared as unsuspecting FBI agent Kate Mercer in the first movie.
More on this as it comes in.
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