Simon Pegg re-accepts MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE IV

From ComingSoon.net:

"Although Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible IV has yet to be officially greenlit by Paramount, Heat Vision is reporting that actor Simon Pegg is already in talks to return as lab geek Benji Dunn in the movie targeted for a December 16, 2011 release.


Pegg's role in J.J. Abrams' feature film debut Mission: Impossible III was a fairly small one, but it ultimately led to Pegg playing Scotty in Abrams' blockbuster reboot of Star Trek last year. With Abrams producing the fourth installment, it would be Pegg and Abrams' third movie together before the in-development Star Trek [sequel].

Once Paramount gives the go-ahead, plans are to start filming in September with Tom Cruise already signed to return as Ethan Hunt."

Obviously, Paramount is worried that the public has lost interest in Tom Cruise. Especially when he tried to throw audiences a bone by being both funny (like he did successfully in Tropic Thunder) and action-packed (again, as in the M:I III) in the box-office flop Knight and Day. Paramount fears that Cruise can no longer pull in an audience, because of all his personal controversies. They have been conspiring to basically turn Mission: Impossible IV into a Kingdom of the Crystal Skull-like film - aka getting him a younger, more BANKABLE sidekick. Somebody they know audiences will pay money to go see.

I think it would be kinda cool for somebody like Simon Pegg himself to play the sidekick. Almost like the TV show "Chuck", a tech nerd suddenly thrust into the world of being a spy; but on a much larger scale. But that's just me.

UPDATE:

On a live Comic-Con special on G4 with (the vivacious) Olivia Munn, Simon Pegg (promoting Paul with Nick Frost) admitted he hasn't actually signed a deal yet, but wouldn't mind returning.

Pixar gives TRON LEGACY a jump-start

From Entertainment Weekly:

"Joe Kosinski’s Tron Legacy is getting a little help from above. EW.com has learned that the CG-extravaganza due out at the end of the year received some key input from some very brilliant filmmakers, mainly the elite brain trust at Pixar in Northern California. In late March, the Tron filmmakers chose to show a very early working cut of the film starring Garrett Hedlund and Jeff Bridges to Pixar’s John Lasseter, Ed Catmull, The Incredibles director Brad Bird, Toy Story 3 screenwriter Michael Arndt, and others. The one-day exercise was done in advance of some planned re-shoots scheduled for June with the intent of beefing up the very things that Pixar is so good at: character, emotion, and theme.

Following the screening — and other viewings with various live-action filmmakers in Los Angeles — Disney hired Arndt and Bird to write some pages for the upcoming re-shoots, which lasted six days last month. Original writers Edward Kitsis and Adam Horowitz ('Lost') were also integral in the writing at this time. 'Tron is very much Joe Kosinski’s vision, a vision which is thrilling to me and I hope is thrilling to the fans,' said Sean Bailey, Disney’s president of production. 'What I give Joe and the filmmaking team immense credit for, is this was all born out of how do we give the fans the best movie we can. We were very fortunate that Pixar wanted to play a part in it.'

So is this inter-studio collaboration a sign of things to come for Disney, under the new regime of studio head Rich Ross and Bailey? The answer seems to be yes. With Disney now essentially an umbrella company for not only Pixar but Marvel and DreamWorks Studios too, it makes a lot of sense. And Bailey, who was first a producer on Tron before being hired by Disney in January, is certainly encouraged by the positive experience of working with those famed filmmakers up north. 'Certainly being able to have an open dialogue with our formidable partners in Pixar, Marvel, and DreamWorks is really interesting to me.'

Tron Legacy will bow on Dec. 17."

Now all doubts aside, can this movie fail? Unless they change the pronounciation of the character's name and remove any hint of humor, no they can't.

Brad Bird accepts MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE IV

From ComingSoon.net:

"On Thursday, Paramount Pictures announced that Mission: Impossible IV was being pushed back from May 27, 2011 to December 16, 2011. Now the director has been confirmed as well.

Tom Cruise talked to Empire magazine and said that it is indeed Brad Bird taking on the director's chair, as rumors had suggested. Bird is of course the director of critically-acclaimed movies The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

Cruise, who is starring and producing with J.J. Abrams, said '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.'

He added that '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?'"

Cool!!! This is also good news for The Hangover 2 because now they won't have to deal with Tom Cruise. However, it's gonna be a close race between M:I IV and Alvin and the Chipmunks 3D.

From INCREDIBLE to IMPOSSIBLE?

From ComingSoon.net:

"Heat Vision is reporting that [two time Academy Award-winning] The Incredibles helmer Brad Bird is a contender to direct Mission: Impossible IV, to again star Tom Cruise and to be produced by J.J. Abrams and Cruise.

Paramount Pictures is targeting a summer start for a May 27, 2011 release.

Cruise and Abrams have been meeting with helmers including Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World director Edgar Wright.

Bird's credits also include The Iron Giant and Ratatouille. While he's never directed a live-action movie before, he has long been developing 1906, set around the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. That project is set up at Warner Bros. and is reportedly stalled because of budgetary reasons.

Plot details for Mission: Impossible IV are being kept a secret but Abrams worked on the story with screenwriters Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum, who have written the script."

SOUNDS WONDERFUL!!! Maybe after this one, he'll do 1906.

By the way, notice the shirt he's wearing reads "Slusho!" "Slusho’s" origins go back to being mentioned in the second episode of J.J. Abrams' television series Alias. "Slusho" was also referenced again in Star Trek, another J.J. Abrams project. So maybe it is true?