Parts of the next Mission: Impossible spy film will be shot in Malta next year, sources close to the film industry have told Times of Malta. 

The eighth instalment of the film, so-far codenamed Scorpio, will once again feature Hollywood star Tom Cruise in the lead role. 

It will be the first time Cruise, 60, will shoot a film in Malta. 

The shoot is expected to last around a month and will see the island play the backdrop to parts of the film. Malta is also expected to double up as South America, industry sources said. Between 200 and 300 film extras are expected to be recruited. The Malta shoot was originally scheduled for October but the process has been delayed.

The film will be directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the classic film The Usual Suspects. Renowned actors Simon Pegg and Ving Rhames are among the names slated for the Malta shoot. 

The seventh instalment of the series titled Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 is slated for release in summer 2023. 

Tom Cruise attends a press conference for the film 'Top Gun: Maverick' in Seoul on June 22. Photo: AFP

McQuarrie has previously teased the theme that will run through the next two instalments in the series, revealing that both Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8 will bring Ethan Hunt's story to an end.

Cruise helped revive the film franchise in 1996 when he starred in the first Mission: Impossible film as Ethan Hunt, a member of a fictional spy agency. Cruise is currently riding on the massive success of Top Gun: Maverick.

It is the biggest film to hit Malta after Jurassic World: Dominion, which featured a showdown in the streets of Valletta.