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Tom Cruise in Vienna for M:I5 premiere

Hollywood star Tom Cruise is back in Vienna for the world premiere of his new movie Mission: Impossible ‎- Rogue Nation on Thursday. Parts of the film were shot in the Austrian capital last year - including dramatic stunt scenes on the roof of the State Opera.

Published: 22 July 2015 09:50 CEST

Tom Cruise in Vienna for M:I5 premiere

Tom Cruise filming on the State Opera. Photo: Katharina Rohrer

“This was by far the biggest production we had in Vienna at least since I can remember,” Marijana Stoisits, managing director of the Vienna Film Commission told the Hollywood Reporter website.

Tickets for the premiere are only available from the film’s production company, Paramount Pictures, and its subcontractors.

More than 400 people worked on the Mission: Impossible shoots – which involved an explosion in the city centre.

Under a government incentives scheme, foreign film productions can get up to 25 percent of their expenses in Austria, capped at €1.1 million. Hollywood productions are seen as a boon to the city as they employ local crews and strengthen their skills, bring an economic boost and give audiences worldwide a glimpse of Vienna.

One of the biggest challenges was closing down Vienna's Ringstrasse for four days during the shoot, the central road which gives access to many of the city’s key sights.

Ahead of the world premiere, the Ringstrasse will also be partially closed on Wednesday and Thursday.

“During shooting Tom Cruise said it would be fantastic to premiere the film in the State Opera, and I agreed,” Stoisits said.

“I am very pleased that Tom Cruise and his team were so excited to film in the Vienna State Opera, and that they accepted our invitation to celebrate the world premiere here. I'm sure it will be a great party, and Vienna will again be the focus of international attention,” Opera director Dominique Meyer said.

The film, which was also shot in London and Morocco, opens in US cinemas on July 31st and in Austrian cinemas from August 6th.

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Venice anti-cruise ship activists cheer temporary victory as liners pull out

Photo: AFP

MSC Cruises and Costa Cruises announced this week that their first Mediterranean cruises after a months-long hiatus due to the pandemic would depart from Genoa and Trieste, larger ports that make new coronavirus-related regulations, such as social distancing, easier to ensure.

On Friday, the group No Grandi Navi (No Big Ships) plans an evening gathering to celebrate what organisers called a small step forward in an eight-year battle to ban the massive ships from Venice's environmentally fragile waters.

No departures from the UNESCO-listed city are planned for the rest of the year, as the two companies trim back their schedules and itineraries. Many big cruise ships will also be skipping Venice as a port of call.

“This isn't the final victory. But it's an important step and we believe it opens a new phase of negotiations in which the game has changed,” No Grandi Navi committee member Marta Sottoriva told AFP.

The port of Venice is a major economic driver for the city, bringing in hoards of day-trippers who swell the number of annual visits to the city to over 30 million, according to some estimates.

Environmentalists charge that massive waves generated from the hulking liners, which are often hundreds of metres long and several stories high, erode the foundations of the floating city.

No Grandi Navi warned earlier this month it would resort to unspecified “sabotage” were the big ships to return to Venice for the key August tourist season.

The pandemic has laid bare the reality that Venice should not rely solely on tourism to sustain its economy, Sottoriva said.

The group argues that the current crisis opens the door to a new, more balanced development model for the city, but political will is required.

Complicating the issue for city authorities are port employees who have not worked since March.

On Monday, workers held a protest at Venice's maritime terminal – usually home to 30 cruise operators – with banners proclaiming that as many as four million cruise-related jobs, from baggage handlers and tug operators to hotel workers, were put at risk by the decision to use alternate ports.

“Calling into question cruises in Venice is not a simple environmental or image issue, you can't play with the future of workers and families,” they said in a statement, as reported by Venetoeconomia.it news portal.

Faced with no employment for the rest of the year, workers said they were launching “a cry of alarm and concern that does not exclude further demonstrations in coming weeks.”

Both the environmentalists and workers decry what they call silence from politicians, and long-stalled decisions on proposals to reroute cruise ships to bypass the lagoon in front of Saint Mark's Square.

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