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For a while now, The Incredibles and Ratatouille director Brad Bird has been searching for a live-action project to follow three consecutive animated works of brilliance. For the longest time, it was understood that his live-action debut would be the disaster movie 1906, set around the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. According to Heat Vision, that project has stalled due to budgetary reasons.

Now he’s being marked as a contender for one of the biggest action films of the near future, Mission: Impossible 4. As we’ve reported previously, Tom Cruise is committed to reprise his role as spy Ethan Hunt and MI3 director J.J. Abrams is on to produce, but the search for a director rages on. The likes of Zombieland‘s Ruben Fleischer and Scott Pilgrim‘s Edgar Wright have been tossed around, with no one signing on the dotted line.

The Paramount production is targeting a May 27, 2011 release, so pre-production is likely to begin very soon. This being a major action piece, it would take time to plan out locations, shooting schedules, etc. In short, they’re running out of time.

The move would be an interesting one for Bird, whose work in animation has been world class. In his animated work, he has been known to be a crafty storyteller and has on more than one occasion delivered complex and thrilling action sequences. As we know from The Incredibles, he’s also got a commitment to story and character. All of these qualities would come in handy for a Mission: Impossible film. If it works out, there’s no reason to be weary of this fourth installment, as it would certainly be in good hands.