It was rumoured just a month ago but now it’s been confirmed that Pixar’s own Brad Bird will direct the J.J. Abrams produced Mission Impossible 4.

Following his Pixar colleague Andrew Stanton into live-action movies (Stanton is busying himself with John Carter of Mars), the director of The Incredibles and The Iron Giant has signed on to one of the biggest film series of recent years, Empire confirms today.

Here’s the quote from Mission Impossible’s main draw Tom Cruise,

The Iron Giant, The Incredibles, Ratatouille – Brad is enormously talented and JJ and I are having a blast, cranking away…We’re having a lot of fun. I like working with people I just love hanging out with, you get to hang out and laugh and talk stories and movies and technology: what are we going to do?

With all the buzz surrounding Abrams secret project Super 8 this confirmation will add to Abrams’ stock and the fourth film in the MI series is due out on the 16th of December 2011, so Abrams will continue to be very busy.

Personally I’m really looking forward to see what Bird will bring to this series, and while I’d have liked to see Edgar Wright get his hands on the MI team, I think Bird makes for a fine choice.