Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch this trailer several times. That’s what it took for me. The first time I watched it, the entire thing was in French. It looked okay. The second time was last night, prior to a screening of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. At the point, I couldn’t help but think that it was a mess of a trailer. Exposition up front, a smattering of incoherently laced clips in the middle, some Eminem for ambiance and finally, a big stunt. After a few more inspection runs just now, I’m seeing some pretty wicked stuff inside Brad Bird’s first live-action film. And I’ve heard from a few insiders that Tom Cruise still has it. It’s hard to throw all that together and not be confident that Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is going to be one hell of a ride. But we’ll see about all that. For now, here’s the first trailer.

I am not a gun. In 1999, we had fully embraced the future of animation. Toy Story and A Bug’s Life had already put Pixar on the map and Toy Story 2 was due out before y2k forced us to recreate all computer technology (or not). Because not only were fully computer-animated movies coming out (in addition to the Pixar collection, Antz was another fairly celebrated film and the first Shrek was just on the horizon), they had good stories. They had celebrity voices. They had the backing of major studios who were turning what was once known as kid’s movies into a behemoth the whole family could enjoy and pay full price admission for. This is why a brilliant film like Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant largely gets forgotten.

Things were going well for the currently in development fourth Mission: Impossible film. Tom Cruise was ready to get back into the shoes of super spy Ethan Hunt. Paramount scored a great director in Brad Bird. And former Alias scribes Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec were putting together a script. This was all before Cruise’s latest action flick, Knight and Day, took a giant steamer at the box office. Now the word on the street is that Paramount is looking to retool Mission: Impossible 4 and give Cruise’s character a new role: mentor.

Two weeks ago, Brad Bird — best known for his work at Pixar with The Incredibles and Ratatouille — was reported to be in the running to make his live-action debut with Mission: Impossible IV. Today we come to find out that Bird wasn’t just on the studio’s director wish list — he might just be their guy.

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. As of today, it may be the case that Bird will be directing Tom Cruise in his live-action debut.

Ollie Johnston, the last surviving member of Walt Disney’s “Nine Old Men” passed away last night at age 93. Though perhaps the name may not be familiar, the work certainly is.

After scouring Gallery 1988, I found that they have alot more cool art. For instance, the coolest one I found was called “Nobody Wants To Play Sega With Harrison Ford.”