When Simon Pegg – star of such classic geek-chic as Spaced, Shawn of the Dead and Star Trek – says that he is excited about something, chances are you should be excited too. The man is, after all, set to appear in Steven Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn – a project with the potential to be one of the best films of 2011 (no pressure Steve…).
So when, in a recent interview, (via ScreenCrave) Pegg voiced his enthusiasm for Brad Bird’s upcoming Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, it is difficult not to put any worries aside and take comfort in the optimism of one Montgomery Scott.
[Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol]’s a rebirth for the series. In the same way with what they’ve done with Spider-Man. I feel like it’s a reinvigoration of this particular story. It was a series when it was on TV, so it’s a story that can have so many iterations. There are so many adventures to get into with this team of impossible mission fighters.
When a film goes into number four you’re like, ‘Isn’t this just like flogging a dead horse now?’ But what they’ve done is they’ve brought in a director who’s never done live action before but who’s had a 100 percent hit rate for his previous movies: Ratatouille, The Incredibles, and The Iron Giant are all just five star films. Brad has just brought that sensibility to this film. And the fact that’s it’s Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, it’s not Mission Impossible 4.
I wanted to read the script and I read it and just thought, ‘This is going to be awesome!’ On top of that, you have a guy who is such a clever director. Who’d of thought that the guy who was the showrunner on “The Simpsons” would be the guy directing a Mission Impossible movie? It sounds crazy but believe me it’s really gonna work. I’m so stoked for this film.
Excited by the filmmakers casting of Jeremy Renner and Paula Patton, the hiring of Pixar’s Brad Bird and the film’s reinvigorated mission statement, it is impossible to deny that Pegg’s optimism is anything but contagious. After J. J. Abrams offered the franchise a reprieve with the truly pulse-pounding third instalment, Ghost Protocol looks set to pull it’s own mission impossible by breaking the fourquel curse and continuing the series’ upward spiral. Stoked? You should be.
