You know, of all the things I talked about today, I didn't get around to talking about the

sleight of hand exhibited in this movie that went from pickpocketing to almost parlor magic,

which was impressive for me because magicians everywhere can rejoice at this and no longer

have to live in shame the way that they've been living ever since arrested development,

so maliciously malign the art of magic has

been taken seriously. Mission Impossible elevates the craft for all of us, and maybe no one will

change their mind on this. But either way, I saw a few good moves. Howdy, I'm Jeff Goldsmith,

and this is the Q&A. My agenda is simple. Each week, I plan to bring you in-depth insights into the creative

process of storytelling. And folks, today I'm very happy to have with me, writer-director,

Christopher McCory, in the podcast for his latest film, Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning, Part

1. It's always great to talk with Chris about his latest film, and today was no different.

Now, folks, right about here is usually where I do a plug for Backstory Magazine and our new

issue.

But we are in pause mode during the WGA strike, and just yesterday, SAG AFRA joined the WGA

writers on the picket line.

There's a SAG AFTER Strike as well. And so while I hope you

continue to support independent journalism, the active interviewing screenwriters and actors, which

is something that Backstory Magazine and this podcast does, it'll continue to get tricky for a while.

There's ways to do it, according to the strike rules, which I will be doing some of for sure.

But I just want to thank all the readers of Backstory Magazine over the past decade and our podcast listeners as well for being patient with us.

And I want Backstory readers to know that issue 49, our latest issue, yes, it has an Oscar cover, but our May issue, which was going to be Emmy stuff, was delayed because of the starting of the strike.

We are updating new articles inside of issue 49, which is something cool that we could do as a digital magazine.

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