Tom Cruise Praises ‘Mission: Impossible IV’ Director Brad Bird

While promoting his new film Knight & Day with MTV, Tom Cruise was able to chat briefly about his return to the role of super-spy Ethan Hunt in the upcoming Mission: Impossible IV. Specifically, he discussed what director Brad Bird is bringing to the table for the franchise’s latest installment:

“If you really know his work the guy is just extraordinary… You look at ‘The Incredibles’, his action is… incredible, but it’s really like live-action. He’s got an incredible sense of story and wit. J.J. and I are producing it together, and we’re really excited about it. It’s going to be fun.”

Despite the film being Bird’s first foray into live-action, Cruise seems enthusiastic about his involvement and I have to admit it may be the most interesting part of this project for me at the moment. Cruise also discussed the importance of bringing a new director on board for each film:

My whole thing with the series is always having a new director come on and put their stamp on ‘Mission: Impossible’. Brian DePalma was first, then John Woo, J.J. Abrams and now Brad Bird, so it will be Brad Bird’s ‘Mission: Impossible.’”

 From Screenrant

Brad Bird Confirmed To Direct M:I4

Since Tom Cruise decided to accept another fiendishly-difficult-but-let’s-face-it-not-quite-Impossible-or-there-would-be-no-movieMission, there’s been speculation as to who would direct the fourth outing in his spy series.

Rumour suggested Brad Bird... Well, it's no longer rumour: it’s Brad Bird.

As previously reported, Cruise – who is producing with part three’s creator, JJ Abrams – was considering both Bird and Blighty’s own Edgar Wright, but Mission: Impossible IV is officially going to The Incredibles writer/director. 

Wright, who is still tied up with post-production on his hotly anticipated comic-book adaptation Scott Pilgrim Vs The World, is still on Cruise’s must-work-with list, though.

“I dig Edgar. Very nice guy, very smart, very talented, I’d really like to do something with him,” said Cruise, talking to Empire recently in Los Angeles. “I met Edgar on the set of Mission 3. Simon Pegg and those guys are hilarious. I love Shaun Of The Dead. It’s amazing. But we’re working with Brad right now. I don’t know if I’m allowed to talk about it but everything’s signed... Brad is doing it.”

Um, we hope you were allowed to talk about it, Tom. The tape recorder was on, anyway. “The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille – Brad is enormously talented and JJ and I are having a blast, cranking away,” Cruise continued. “We’re having a lot of fun. I like working with people I just love hanging out with. You get to hang out and laugh and talk stories and movies and technology: what are we going to do?”

Mission: Impossible IV should hit theatres in 2011. In the meantime, Cruise’s spy antics continue in rom-com-cum-actioner Knight And Day(we’ve seen some of it – it looks terrific), due out in the UK on July 14 (June 25 in the US).

For a full interview with Cruise and his co-star, Cameron Diaz, pick up the next issue of Empire (not the current one – though buy that, too – the nextone, out on June 3).

From Empire

Vulture Exclusive: Brad Bird in Negotiations to Direct Mission: Impossible IV

Insiders tell Vulture that Pixar mainstay Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) has overtaken the competition to direct Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible IV, and is now in negotiations with Paramount Pictures to do the film. A source close to the deal says that the talks hinge on Bird's mammoth quote: animation projects can take three years of work, and therefore the directors get paid much more, and considering Bird's last two films both won Oscars, his normal paycheck is even bigger yet. However, shooting and posting even a big-budget, CGI live-action film takes only a year or so. (In fact, this one can'ttake any longer; the studio has it slated to open May 27, 2011. ) Therefore, Paramount is hoping Bird will reduce his price accordingly.

Speaking of big-shot directors, executive producer J.J. Abrams, who directed M:I3, helped craft the M:I4 story. The screenplay was ultimately written by Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum (ABC's Life on Mars, Happy Town). We hear it involves spies.

From Vulture

Animated Critics - Ep 1: Mission Impossible 4

Animated Critics - Ep 1: Mission Impossible 4

Mission: Impossible IV Update

At WonderCon today, IGN spoke to Josh Applebaum, one of the creators of ABC's new murder mystery series, Happy Town. During our conversation, the topic of another upcoming project of Applebaum's came up, Mission: Impossible IV, which Applebaum is writing with his partner Andre Nemec– a project which will reunite them with J.J. Abrams, who is producing M:I IV, and first worked with Applebaum and Nemec on Alias. 

Recent reports that Brad Bird -- the acclaimed director of The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille-- may be making his live-action directorial debut with Mission: Impossible IV were confirmed as at least a possibility by Applebaum. Asked if Bird directing the film might lead to changes to the script, Applebaum replied, "I mean, if Brad signs on, A: it would be the most incredible thing ever and B: we would be crazy to not be using Brad's sensibilities to kind of enrich the script. We're all just huge fans of his and we're so excited about getting him into the collaborative process because his input and his ideas I think will only make this just more fun and enjoyable and help take it to another level." 

Asked whether they were ever thinking of a storyline without Ethan Hunt, should Tom Cruise not have returned, Applebum said, "There was a lot of talk in the press that Tom might not do it. I think all along we knew all along that Tom is… There's no Mission: Impossible without Ethan Hunt." 

The Mission: Impossible series is known for essentially rebooting itself with each film – having a different director with a radically different style, and virtually no story threads connecting the different installments. However, with Abrams, who directed the third film, returning as a producer this time around, I asked Applebaum if M:I IV might feel like more of a true sequel than the previous films in the series. 

"It's funny you say that," Applebaum replied. "Tom and J.J. were very much… They get the thing that the first one felt like a Brian De Palma movie, the second one felt like a John Woo movie, the third like a J.J. Abrams movie. This will absolutely feel like it's own kind of entity. They'll be all the things you love fromMission: Impossible in it, but it'll have its own sensibility, and certainly with whatever director we assign to it, that person will be somebody that will be able to create his own sort of spin and angle on what Mission: Impossible is, while still staying very true to the genre and the franchise." 

Still, Abrams did work hard to give Ethan Hunt a much more fleshed out supporting cast in the third film, including the characters played by Michelle Monaghan, Simon Pegg and Laurence Fishburne. Could Mission: Impossible IV mark the first time we see characters besides Ethan Hunt and Luthor (played by Ving Rhames) return? When I poised this question to Applebaum, he simply smiled and said, "You might."

From IGN Movies

Angelina Jolie in New Salt Trailer

We gave you fair warning a couple of days ago that a new trailer would be released for Angelina Jolie’slatest action flick, Salt. Infamously known as the movie Tom Cruise turned down, the main character was changed from a man to a woman, and voila we’ve got another Wanted but with more espionage and horrible wigs. Check out Jolie in action…

In the film Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a government agent who’s forced to prove her innocence when she is accused of being a Russian sleeper spy. She goes on the run to find out who’s behind her set up, and uses her special ops training to get information. And by “use her training” we mean plenty of people will be seriously injured or killed during her search for answers.

The movie does look interesting and the more I see from it the more I’m surprised that Cruise didn’t stick with it. Perhaps he was afraid of the comparisons to his Mission Impossible franchise, because there are a lot of similarities. Especially at the end of the trailer when Salt’s taking off her face mask, theM.I. series was notorious for those shots.

Despite that, I do think they make the character work for a woman and it’s nice to see a female in a role of this caliber. The only downside is, she doesn’t look like she could believably kick any of these guys asses, but then again this is Hollywood. It’s the place where anything can happen!

Check out the trailer…

From Screencrave

Incredibles Helmer Brad Bird in Talks to Direct Mission: Impossible 4

As the search for a "Mission: Impossible IV" director intensifies, a surprising contender has emerged: Brad Bird.
Finding a director has been a top priority for star Tom Cruise, who reprises his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt and is producing with J.J. Abrams. Paramount set a May 27, 2011, release date for the movie and is eyeing a summer start. A tentpole of this magnitude needs a lot of prep time to iron out things such as massive set pieces and worldwide locations.
Cruise and Abrams have been meeting with helmers new and old, including "Zombieland" director Ruben Fleischer and Edgar Wright, who has "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" coming out this summer.
On the surface, Bird may seem a peculiar choice. The writer-director wrote and directed 1999's "The Iron Giant" and 2004's "The Incredibles" as well as 2007's "Ratatouille" (the latter two earned Oscars for best animated picture), but he has never helmed a live-action feature.
On the other hand, nabbing Bird would be inspired. He is praised for his storytelling skills and is known for his strengths in staging thrilling and intricate action set-pieces as well as fusing the action with large dollops of heart and emotion.
Bird has been itching to make his live-action debut for a while and has long been developing "1906," set around the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. That project is set up at Warners and is rumored to be stalled because of budgetary reasons.
Bird would not be the first Pixar-ite to jump into live action. Andrew Stanton, who directed "Finding Nemo" and "WALL-E" is in London shooting "John Carter of Mars," a big-screen translation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs hero.
If Bird does end up directing "MI4," however, he would beat Stanton to the big-screen, as "Carter" has a 2012 release date.
The fourth installment of the moneymaking "Mission" franchise, based on the 1960s TV series, has been in the works for a while but gained traction in February when Cruise officially made it his next starring gig.
Plot details are being kept under a lid of secrecy, but Abrams worked on the story with scribes Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum, who have written the screenplay.

From THR