Carrie-Anne Moss was offered a role after Tom Cruise was impressed with her work in Suspect Zero (2004), which Cruise produced. When Joe Carnahan left the project, and J.J. Abrams's took the reigns, her character was dropped from the film entirely.
Kelly Brook was at one point slated to appear.
David Fincher was first slated to direct the film but dropped out to produce Lords of Dogtown (2005), which he also dropped out of directing. The basic storyline of the version he was working on dealt with black market trade of body parts in Africa.
While the producers signed on J.J. Abrams as director in August 2004 after Joe Carnahan's departure, the film was abruptly delayed for at least a year due to Tom Cruise's commitment to the abruptly green-lit War of the Worlds (2005). The production was delayed until Summer 2005, causing the film to be released in 2006. Abrams was hired after Cruise saw episodes of the Abrams series "Alias" (2001) on DVD and was impressed.
Kenneth Branagh was cast as the villain, but because of shooting-delays he had to drop out to begin work on As You Like It (2006).
Studio filming took place at sound stages at the Paramount studio's lot, which for the previous 18 years had been used solely for episodes of Star Trek.
At one point, Ricky Gervais was cast in the film as an ally to Ethan Hunt. But due to various production and casting changes, Gervais had to pull out of the film and was replaced by Simon Pegg.
Scarlett Johansson was cast in the film early on but pulled out of the project.
In early May 2004, it was reported that Tom Cruise (in his role as a producer) had requested of the German government that filming be allowed in the 40-metre glass dome of the German Parliament building, the Bundestag. He had earlier visited the Foster & Partners-designed building and been very impressed. His request was denied, however, by Parliament President Wolfgang Thierse. "The building is not available as a film location and we refuse point blank every request to use it as such," a spokesman said.
The film's former director Joe Carnahan was offered the position of director after Tom Cruise was impressed by his work on Narc (2002), which Cruise also executive produced. Carnahan stepped down from the position of director because of creative differences only a month before filming was originally due to begin in August of 2004. His departure delayed the film by a year, while a new director was being sought after. In this time, Cruise went on to film War of the Worlds (2005) which had its originally intended 2006 release fast-tracked by a whole year.
Thandie Newton was offered the chance to reprise the role of Nyah Nordoff Hall, but turned it down to concentrate on spending time with her family. Her role in the story was later changed to a new character named Leah Quint (played by Carrie-Anne Moss) but when J.J. Abrams took over directing the project, the character was totally scrapped from the story.
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