Learn When MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 4 Hits Cinemas!!

I am – Hercules!! Paramount just announced that J.J. Abrams’ third big-screen directorial effort (and the first, apparently, not based on a TV show), “Super 8,” will hit cinemas next summer -- and the Abrams-produced “Mission: Impossible 4” is coming Dec. 16, 2011. Brad Bird (“The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille”) is widely rumored to be directing “MI:4” from a screenplay by TV’s “October Road”-“Happy Town” masterminds, Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec. Tom Cruise will be back as Ethan Hunt. I'm hopeful Bird, who wrote the two Pixar movies he directed, will take a hand in scripting "Impossible." Because the Appelbaum/Nemec resume inspires little confidence.