When they first started talking about it, it seemed an odd choice, but Brad Bird has now been confirmed as the director of Mission: Impossible IV. It’s odd because it’s a tentpole flick in a massive franchise handed to a man who’s never made a live action movie before. However he was won Oscars for the likes of Ratatouille and The Incredibles, so at least he knows how to put a movie together.
Empire even managed to get Tom Cruise’s thoughts on it. He said, “Were working with Brad right now. I dont know if Im allowed to talk about it but everythings signed… Brad is doing it… The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille Brad is enormously talented and JJ (Abrams) and I are having a blast, cranking away. Were 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?
Along with that confirmation, Paramount has also been shifting around release dates, moving Mission: Impossible IV from a summer release to December 16, 2011. That gives the film, which is yet to go into production, a more sensible production schedule, although there are suggestions that the studio won’t give up the date, instead moving Abram’s and Spielberg’s secret Super 8 into the empty spot.
And while we’re on release date announcements, Fox has let it be known, via Variety, that the long gestating Planet Of The Apes prequel, previously called Caesar but now known as Planet Of The Apes: Rise Of The Apes, is getting the go ahead, and that it’ll be hitting cinemas on June 24th, 2011. That doesn’t give the filmmakers long, with director Rupert Wyatt having to work his socks off to make that date. At least he’ll have some help from Peter Jackson’s WETA FX, who will be creating photo-realistic apes for the project, rather than the make-up jobs we’re used to. That makes sense as this reworking of Conquest Of Planet Of The Apes sees scientists working on gentically enhanced simians that run out out of control, so they’re unlikely to be as advanced as the ones in the earlier movies. And with the name change, it’s obvious the studio is seeing this as the start of a new era for the Apes franchise, with plenty more to come if this one’s a success. Let’s just hope it’s as cool as the orginal.