IS THIS MISSION POSSIBLE? [PREVIEW OF MI:4 - GHOST PROTOCOL]

Up in the sky... it's a bird, it's a.... damn it, it's Tom Cruise pulling off one hell of a stunt.

On Tuesday [11/02/2010], at a press conference held in sunny Dubai, Tom Cruise proudly unveiled the title of his next MI movie: "Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol". And this time the mission drags him and his daring IMF team to the United Arab Emirates, amongst other global locations

Brad Bird is directing this fourth film. And Tom Cruise is producing with the third installment helmer J.J. Abrams [The guy behind the 2009 Star Trek]. The duo devised the story, which was masterfully turned into a screenplay by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec.
The action/adventure film stars the following veteran actors:

• Simon Pegg [Scotty, in the 2009 Star Trek]
• Jeremy Renner [He was the bad guy, Gamble, in the movie SWAT]
• Paula Patton [The lead female with Denzel in Deja Vu]
• Ving Rhames [Returning actor in the MI series]
• Lea Seydoux [Wife of King John in the 2010 Robin Hood]
• Josh Holloway [Played James Ford on the hit show Lost],
• Michael Nyqvist [Ummm... yeah, I don't know him either, but he's a Swedish superstar actor]
• and Anil Kapoor [Respected bollywood actor, and appeared in Slumdog Millionaire].

There's no word on the villain or comprehensive movie plot yet. But this fourth movie is slated for release in the fourth quarter of 2011, possibly in December.

Not too long ago, the world's tallest building with residential quarters was built there in Dubai. The name of that towering structure is the Burj Khalifa. And it stands at 828 meters [approximately 2,717 ft] from the ground.

An American football field is about 109 meters in length. Now imagine stacking 8 football fields end to end, and erecting them vertically into the sky. That will give you an idea of how tall the Burj Khalifa tower really is.

 

This outstanding building [which cost about $1.5 billion to create] can be seen from the neighboring countries, Saudi Arabia and Oman. And per its grand scale, despite the fact that sales of the million-dollar condos within it have been rather low, it seems only natural that it has already caught the eye of a popular Hollywood franchise.

A few pictures have been released showcasing Tom dangling from a thick cable near the top of the massive structure, doing his thing as superspy Ethan Hunt. The thing you see in the zoomed-out photo isn't Tom; its a helicopter capturing the action. [Photo on the right, above, is courtesy of Sky News].

And per eyewitness reports, there are action scenes which take place within the Burj Khalifa, around the midsection of the tall structure.

I'm not sure how the logical premise for his presence up there is going to be set up in the movie, but considering the phenomenal sky pendulum stunt he pulled off in the third act of MI:3 while chasing the elusive "rabbit's foot" in Japan, there will probably be a damn good reason his daredevil stunt in Dubai.

When considering notarized spy movies, Jason Bourne will probably be at the top of the list for dynamics and infused realism, and James Bond will probably be lower... much lower, if we're talking about probable events that could be conceived within the realm of our modern reality. But the niche carved out by Ethan Hunt is a unique one; the MI movies never go over the top in their presented theories/technologies, and they still manage to provide excessive entertainment as they take the viewer on a guided odyssey.

Some will say that MI:2 was the best of the present trilogy, and that stance is quite understandable:

Tom is one of those actors that you either love or hate. But regardless of the personal opinions that fans and critics have on him, he's the kind of guy that deserves respect for working his ass off and adamantly doing his own stunts... regardless of how crazy they may seem to be.

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EDIT ON JULY 1, 2011 - MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4 MOVIE UPDATES:

New info on the forthcoming MI:4 - Ghost Protocol movie have been released. And several sources confirm that it features the tough-as-nails MI team led by Ethan Hunt [played by Tom Cruise] being branded as a gang of terrorists, per a gruesome bombing that takes place overseas. The MI team is disavowed by the national government agency that houses their covert group and funds their black-ops missions. And the team members are forced to flee from the USA and embark upon a daring mission around the world to clear their names.

The New Trailer below will give you a taste of things to come [MI:4 - Ghost Protocol movie is slated for release in December 2011]: 





**EDIT ON NOVEMBER 6TH, 2011 - NEW MI4 PHOTOS:

Here are several production pics & photos / Official posters from Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol and some cool stills from the trailers. Jeremy Renner is a fellow mysterious MI special agent. Simon Pegg acts as the guy in charge of the hi-tech gizmos. And Paula Patton is the actress in the sexy green evening gown, shown below. 

 

 

 

Check out this recent Article From Yahoo Movies News, talking about MI:4 and its premise.
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Written by Matt McDaniel on June 28, 2011:

The problem with a lot of movie sequels is that they are too similar to the original films. Oftentimes, they'll copy the plot and style of the first installment so closely they feel more like remakes than standalone film. But that's never been the case with "Mission: Impossible."
Tom Cruise first turned the classic 1960s TV spy show into a big-screen blockbuster 15 years ago. And while a few key elements have shown up in each sequel -- Cruise, Ving Rhames, identity-concealing masks, and, of course, the theme song -- the subsequent movies have their own look and feel.  Each movie had a different director (Brian De Palma, John Woo and J.J. Abrams, respectively) who put their own stamp on the material. And the sequels brought in new costars, exotic locales and hair-raising stunts to try to top the one that came before.
From the looks of the just-released trailer, the fourth film, "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," could be the most radical departure yet. Cruise returns as IMF secret agent Ethan Hunt, but this time he's backed by a new team that includes the Oscar-nominated star of "The Hurt Locker," Jeremy Renner. The cast also includes Paula Patton ("Precious"), Josh Holloway (TV's "Lost"), and Simon Pegg (the first actor other than Cruise and Rhames to appear in two "M:I" movies).

The added stars mean that Tom Cruise's character isn't doing all the action himself in this movie. The trailer shows Renner dropping down an airshaft on cables, much like Cruise did so memorably in the first movie. And Holloway can be seen running across a rooftop and plummeting to the ground. Even Pegg, who was stuck behind a computer in "Mission: Impossible 3," gets in on the fighting.

Still, Cruise isn't exactly sitting on the sidelines in "Ghost Protocol." The trailer has him running from massive explosions, getting tossed around inside a rolling car, and narrowly avoiding getting squished by another flipping vehicle. And in an already infamous stunt, Cruise can be seen hanging off Burj Khalifa in Dubai, the tallest structure ever built. He really did dangle from wires outside of the building almost 1500 feet in the air.

Naturally, the movie crosses the globe, filming in the United Arab Emirates, Russia, India, and the Czech Republic. It has an international cast of villains as well, including Anil Kapoor ("Slumdog Millionaire"), Michael Nyqvist ("The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo") and Léa Seydoux ("Robin Hood"). Plus, some scenes in the movie were shot on IMAX cameras, so the big scenes will fill up the giant-sized screens like in "The Dark Knight."
"Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" also breaks new ground by being the first live-action movie directed by Brad Bird. Formerly a director of animated films for Pixar, Bird won Academy Awards for his movies "The Incredibles" and "Ratatouille." It's very unusual for a "first-time" director to get the reins of a big-budget action spectacle like this, but it's not the first time. J.J. Abrams also hadn't directed a feature when he took on "MI:3," and he went on to have hits with "Star Trek" and "Super 8."

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And Check out these posters from the explosive DSNG Sci Fi Series [Both of the ebooks below feature undercover / black-ops operations in a futuristic world]:

 

Link to the DSNG Blog article explaining the image on the LEFT, above:
http://dsngsfm.blogspot.com/2011/05/overview-of-dsng-chronicles-book-4.html

Link to the DSNG Blog article explaining the image on the RIGHT, above:
http://dsngsfm.blogspot.com/2011/06/exploring-dsng-part-11-usual-unusual.html