'Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol' To Feature Sequences Shot In IMAX

Paramount Slate For Imax In 2011 Also Includes 'Super 8,' 'Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn' & ' Transformers: Dark Of The Moon'

Tom Cruise is looking to bring back his bread and butter franchise with all the bells and whistles possible. The plot is being kept under lock and key and the film is in the midst of a worldwide shoot with "The Incredibles" director Brad Bird at the helm. But just to make sure audiences get as much bang for their hard earned buck as possible, "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" will feature scenes shot in IMAX. Yes, just like Christopher Nolan did for "The Dark Knight."

This bit of info was confirmed in a press release sent out today in which a number of Paramount projects will be supersized for the format you have to pay extra for, including J.J. Abrams' mysterious "Super 8," Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg's tentpole "The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" and Michael Bay's robots fighting movie "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Of course, those films don't have anything shot with IMAX cameras but the studio hopes you'll fork over a few more dollars to watch them on a bigger screen. And it's intriguing with the release of 'Ghost Protocol' and 'Tintin' 12 days apart, does that mean the Cruise vehicle -- with scenes actually shot in the format -- will barely get two weeks on IMAX screens before being booted off? Hmm.

We actually dug the IMAX sequences in "The Dark Knight" -- some of it was truly breathtaking, particularly the cityscape shots -- and we think Brad Bird certainly has the right visual eye to deliver something special. Whether or not it's worthy of the actual movie remains to be seen.

As you already know, Jeremy Renner co-stars and may eventually take over the franchise, and he's joined by an extensive cast including Paula Patton, Josh Holloway, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg as the good guys, and Michael Nyqvist (”The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”), Anil Kapoor (”Slumdog Millionaire”), Lea Seydoux (”Robin Hood”) and Vladimir Mashkov (”Behind Enemy Lines”) as the villains. The film hits theaters on December 16th, 2011.