Tom Cruise and producer JJ Abrams are currently engaged in tracking down one of the most important components for Mission: Impossible 4 – a director. Ruben Fleischer’s name has been bandied about, but there’s another couple of choices floating out there – Brad Bird and Edgar Wright.
According to the Heat Vision Blog, Cruise and Abrams have been spinning the rolodexes to interview a number of directors, as Paramount really wants the film before cameras this summer.
Bird might not have live-action film directing experience, but when you look at his back catalogue – The Iron Giant, Ratatouille and The Incredibles as the standouts – it’s clear he can make a great movie full of heart, soul and things that go boom. He’s been trying to get disaster drama 1906 off the ground as his first dip into non-animated filmmaking for a while now, but that seems stuck in budget-crisis limbo.
We’d kill to see what Bird would do with Ethan Hunt and co, especially as it might lead to Michael Giacchino getting another crack at the soundtrack after working with Abrams on M
As to the other person mentioned in the report – Edgar Wright? Another solid choice, though Edgar might be too busy promoting Scott Pilgrim to take on the job, and we doubt Marvel would be too thrilled at the idea, since he’s still contemplating Ant-Man.
It would also put a spanner in the works of the next Pegg/Frost/ Wright collaboration, though we’re sure Edgar wouldn’t be against slipping a Nick cameo into the movie somehow, and Simon’s already established in the IMF universe, having appeared in the third film.
Whoever takes up the gauntlet will be working from Andre Nemec and Josh Applebaum’s screenplay, and would need to have the finished product ready for the previously announced May 2011 release date.