Hollywood heavyweight Tom Cruise is reportedly looking for a home in New Zealand.
According to Radar Online Cruise has already begun scouting for rental housing in the South Island.
A source told the publication, “He already has people scouting for incredible home rentals in the South Island wilderness.”
The actor had just one “caveat”: “It must be near a private airport or a chopper pad, because he wants to be able to get to the fancy new Scientology centre up in Auckland.”
The reason behind the expected move is that the actor would be filming the next two Mission Impossible movies back-to-back in New Zealand, so while the move may not be permanent, he would need to spend extended periods of time in New Zealand.
Mission: Impossible 7 is due to be released in July, 2021, and Mission: Impossible 8, in August, 2022.
“The New Zealand Film Commission is secretly romancing producers to come back after they shot one scene of Fallout there, and Tom’s 100 per cent on board,” the source revealed.
The 57-year-old actor, who played Ethan Hunt for the sixth time in the last Mission: Impossible film, Mission Impossible: Fallout, is renowned for doing his own stunts and even learned how to fly a helicopter so that he could perform his most death-defying stunt yet in the Southern Alps during filming in 2017.
The stunt comprised a highly dangerous cork screw manoeuvre, spiralling downwards towards the ground at a 360 degree angle.
Cruise orginally approached Aerial assistant Randy Hepner and said he wanted to learn to fly a helicopter.
“It takes something like three months of 8 hour days just to become a novice helicopter pilot,” Hepner said at the time. “Tom needed to work around the clock to reach the level of skill the sequence needs.”
The cork screw manoeuvre, he said “”most pilots wouldn’t attempt.”
As one of the crew members rather bluntly explained, “you make a mistake – somebody’s going to die from it.”
Cruise is currently filming Top Gun: Maverick.