MI:3

[Ghostboy]

Too late, cbrad! Brett Ratner beat you to it.

[ElPandaRoyal]

Too late, cbrad! Brett Ratner beat you to it.

Our beloved Ratner........................................................  

Is this for real?

[matt35mm]

J. J. Abrams is the latest rumored director.  That man knows his spy action stuff.

Did he direct the Alias second season ender?  Cuz whoever did should direct MI:3.  I swear I held my breath for the last ten minutes of that episode.

[Ghostboy]

AICN reported that Ratner signed on this morning: http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=18019

[Finn]

How you like them apples?!

[ProgWRX]

I go away for 5 days and this is what happens  

[cron]

Definitely bring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker into the IMF Team. They're all assigned to protect some family man, played by Nicholas Cage -- who ultimately turns out to be the villain. Charlie Sheen will be the reporter who gets in the way because "money talks".

[Myxo]

Fucking hell..

Ratner.

[Just Withnail]

So is this cool news or real confirmed news?

[Pubrick]

it's shit news.

[El Duderino]

Source: Variety

After some rumors in the recent weeks ... it's now official.

J.J. Abrams (the screenwriter of "Armageddon," is also the TV creator of "Alias" and "Felicity") will direct the third installment of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise starring Tom Cruise. Abrams will be replacing director Joe Carnahan ("Narc"), who bowed out of the project last month due to creative differences.

Previously being prepped in Berlin, the film is now set to begin shooting in the summer of 2005. Having directed all three of his series, Abrams makes his major motion picture directorial debut with "Mission: Impossible 3"

Meanwhile, Tom Cruise will be filling his working schedule with "The War of the Worlds," a big-budgeted sci-fi project based on H.G. Wells' classic. The updated version will re-team Cruise with "Minority Report" director Steven Spielberg. Production for that film is set for November.

[ProgWRX]

at least its not Ratner  

[MacGuffin]

'Alias' scribes on 'M:I-3' mission
Source: Hollywood Reporter

J.J. Abrams is reteaming with "Alias" writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, who are coming on board to work on the script of "Mission: Impossible 3." The move comes in the wake of the announcement last month that "Alias" creator Abrams will helm the second sequel in the successful franchise after Joe Carnahan dropped out. Several writers have been involved with the project, including Dean Georgaris, Dan Gilroy, Robert Towne and Frank Darabont.

[MacGuffin]

Cruise's Big Dreams Delaying 'Mission III'

Hollywood star Tom Cruise's extravagant plans for the long-awaited Mission Impossible III film are reportedly causing problems for Paramount Studios, who fear the budget will spiral out on control. The actor is producing and reprising his role as agent Ethan Hunt in the sequel to 2000 hit Mission: Impossible II, which is scheduled to begin filming in June 2005. According to Fox News gossip columnist Roger Friedman, Paramount is concerned because no script exists for the movie. Friedman explains, "The rest of it is in Tom's head." In July, Narc film-maker Joe Carnahan quit the project citing "creative differences", and was replaced by first-time movie director JJ Abrams, whose previous credits include directing episodes of TV drama Alias. Despite decided locations in Germany, Belgium, Ghana, Canada and the US, Paramount is reportedly getting increasingly nervous over Cruise's plans to film in 15 countries, raising the budget to $234 million. Friedman says, "I am told that Cruise actually assembled a trailer for it, including credits, voiceovers and clips that he screened for friends as a way to bolster his ego. Trailers are made after a film is completed, not before it's even been shot."

[MacGuffin]

Mission: Really Impossible for Scarlett & Carrie-Anne

Scarlett Johansson and The Matrix star Carrie-Anne Moss have quit the second Mission: Impossible sequel because of ongoing delays. The two in-demand actresses were slated to team up with Tom Cruise in M:I 3 but director JJ Abrams reveals he has had to let them go because of scheduling problems around the film's script. He tells website About.com, "The script was rewritten. I'm a huge fan of each actor that they cast originally, but to have kept the actors when we are reinventing the story would have been an odd process. "To say, 'Write a script with these people in mind for characters that haven't been written,' just felt like we had to start over with a clean slate." Abrams, who has yet to announce his replacements for the project, is committed to starting the shoot in July.