Brad Bird to Direct New Film for Disney

Brad Bird, who rose to fame at Pixar directing The Incredibles and Ratatouille - after previously directing The Iron Giant - whose most recent film was the fourth instalment in the super successful Mission: Impossible franchise - Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - has just been announced to be working on a mystery project for Disney.

Via Indiewire and Deadline, we have learnt that the Ratatouille director is now helming a film for Disney called 1952. Not to be confused with 1906 - the film Bird has been working on for a while about the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 - the script for 1952 is being penned by Lost and Prometheus scribe, Damon Lindelof.

Other than this interesting and exciting pairing, we know little about the film - possible scenarios include that 1952 was the year that the first hydrogen bomb was detonated, and a killer fog descended on London; but this is pure speculation. But here's hoping it bodes better than Andrew Stanton's John Carter did for Disney.

At any rate, Bird has never let us down, and I can't wait to hear more about this in the future!

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Review - High Octane, Action Packed Thrills Galore

In case you haven't been following news on the latest instalment in Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible series and its production, and before you die of shock at seeing a review of a live-action, spy film on a site about animation; allow me to elaborate:

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol marks the live-action directorial debut of Brad Bird, a CalArts alumni who worked to build up The Simpsons - directing the famed episodes 'Krusty Gets Busted' and 'Like Father, Like Clown' - later moving on to features animation, with the critically acclaimed, traditionally animated, The Iron Giant. However, where Bird is most widely recognised from, is in his capacity at Pixar. A member of the revered 'Brain Trust', Bird directed 2004's The Incredibles (for which he also provided the voice of superhero-fashion designer, Edna Mode) and 2007's Ratatouille. Now though, Brad Bird has pointed himself in the live-action direction, as he helms the fourth entry into the popular Mission: Impossible franchise. As there always are when an animation director crosses over to live-action, or vice versa - as visible in early comments Steven Spielberg directing The Adventures of Tintin, and fellow Pixarian, Andrew Stanton, directing Disney's live-action John Carter - there always some consternation and quiet concern that there skills in their first field may not translate to the latter format; however, there are no such problems here for Brad Bird, as M:I-GP is an awesomely action packed, fast paced rollicking ride.

Brad Bird Joins Twitter

Briefly, the director of such animated greats as The Incredibles and Ratatouille - and more recently the live-action blockbuster, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol - Brad Bird, has now joined Twitter.

The Academy Award winning filmmaker is joining fellow Pixarians Andrew Stanton, Lee Unkrich and Ed Catmull on Twitter. His username is BradBirdA113 (rather similar to mine, although he does have more license to use it) and his account can be found here.

Be sure to give him a warm welcome.