Rusty Dumas, the first storyboard artist on "Mission: Impossible III", talked to French site Mesclun Art Media about his work on the film which at the time was "Narc" director Joe Carnahan's version.
After briefly working and then parting ways with David Fincher, the production tried developing a third film with Carnahan that was a grittier, darker and more real take on the whole franchise. Upon receipt of the script and early work, the studio and Cruise/Wagner soon after decided to take a different direction and do something more mainstream, ultimately going with J.J. Abrams as director and bringing in new writers to do a whole new story.
As a result many remain curious as to just how dark and gritty Carnahan's take would've been, let alone what it was all about. Now, in the interview which is in French, you can see some storyboards for part of the opening sequence set in Africa where Ethan Hunt (Cruise) takes out a sniper and then does the job himself to make it look as if an African political leader was actually shot by someone within a rally of followers.
Dumas elaborates further and here's the best English translation of his key answers I could come up with (so while it's a direct quote, some of it I'm paraphrasing): "I think that he (Carnahan) wanted a film as incredible and realistic as possible, the most realistic of spy films. The African continent would have had an important place, and shooting would have taken place in many authentic locations. Moro Fiori was about to film all that, which would have given an incredible energy and texture".
He adds "Joe is well-informed of all that occurs on a political level. He really fought for the film touching contemporary topics - showing the links between arms sales in the States, the Baltic and the African West - with knowing how the weapons were conveyed into war zones and who paid them, with what, and who profited. I think that he wanted to show a probable scenario. Frankly, I do not think that the majority of people think much of that. If the public could see these points evoked in films of entertainment, it could get them interested in some serious subjects".
He also briefly talked about Fincher's version, saying "[you would] see Tom Cruise playing a part of its age - towards forty - and not to be such a super hero as it had been in the second film... The objective was to return to the very first concept of the series". Dumas confirms that some of the sequences he filmed did make it into the film in basically the same format, such as the Germany kidnap/raid sequence.
