On Monday, Paramount Pictures unveiled an IMAX poster for this December's Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and it turns out now that there was a very specific reason for that, as Paramount and IMAX have announced that roughly thirty minutes of the globe-trotting sequel were shot using IMAX cameras.  In the summer of 2008, The Dark Knight became the first blockbuster to include specific shots filmed in IMAX, rather than simply blowing up every image for the extra large scenes.  The result lent the film a spectacular scope, particularly in action sequences.

The Mission Impossible franchise has always included vertigo-inducing stuntwork, and director Brad Bird has upped the ante by setting Ghost Protocol's centerpiece action sequence on the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.  Anyone who remembers the visceral impact of that IMAX shot in which Batman dove off that skyscraper in Hong Kong will naturally assume that we'll be seeing some similarly huge shots of Tom Cruise swinging around above Dubai.

Last month, Paramount Pictures unveiled the first poster for this Winter's sequel Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, and it featured franchise star Tom Cruise simply glaring out from under a stylish hoodie with maximum intensity, implying that things might get a little rough fro IMF agent Ethan Hunt in this latest go-around.  Now, a new IMAX-specific poster for the film again features Cruise looking intense, but for entirely more obvious reasons, as he's making like Spider-Man and dangling rather precariously from the side of the Burj Khalifa.  At a ridiculous 2,717 feet tall, that would be the tallest building in the world, located in Dubai.

This morning, we saw the cover of an upcoming magazine featuring the assembled cast of The Avengers all in one place, ready to stare at shoppers from the magazine racks at grocery stores all over America.  Now, mere hours later, we have a little batch of official images from the crossover ensemble movie towards which Marvel Studios has been building since just after the credits of Iron Man in 2008.  Unlike the awkward Photoshop job that stacked the familiar superheroes on the latest Entertainment Weekly cover, these new images are entirely more natural.  They include a shot of Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr. striking poses as Steve Rogers and Tony Stark, Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner firing their respective weapons before a green screen as well as behind the scenes photo of Joss Whedon and Chris Hemsworth hanging out with Evans and Downey Jr.

The new issue of Entertainment Weekly, which hits newsstands and hamster cages on Friday, September 30th, features a big set visit report on The Avengers, the unprecedented superhero crossover teaming up cinematic heroes previously introduced in Iron Man, Iron Man 2, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger.  Since this, generally speaking, is the sort of thing that can move some magazines, EW has teased the issue by putting the cover image online, accompanied by the very briefest of articles giving just a taste of what you'll find in the pages.  So go ahead and whet your whistle with an every shade of official image putting Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Evans, and Jeremy Renner.

The first animated Ice Age tale came about almost a decade ago, in 2002, and while it was an enjoyable tale of anthropomorphized prehistoric animals banding together as unlikely buddies and making it through an epochal cold-snap together, you wouldn't be wrong for not expecting it to spawn a viable franchise with two sequels in the can and another on the way for next summer.  The 2006 sequel, Ice Age: The Meltdown, found the gang heading for high ground as the ice turns to water, and 2009's Ice Age: Rise of the Dinosaurs found the tangling with, you know, dinosaurs.

Ice Age: Continental Drift sees the main characters trying to keep it together as Pangea, the massive unified continent, drifts apart into the seven continents as we know them.  The first teaser poster for the new film predictably employs the long-toothed squirrel Scrat once again in pursuit of an acorn, this time on a makeshift sailboat.

Paramount Pictures has unveiled the very first teaser poster for this winter's action sequel Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, the fourth installment of a movie franchise that began all of fifteen years ago as a retooled take on a television series from 1966.  Though there are likely to be big changes in the franchise's future, this teaser poster sticks to proven, recognizable elements: Tom Cruise's face and a burning fuse that almost makes you start pounding out that enduring musical theme in your head.

On Friday, a batch of set photos showed almost the entire cast of The Avengers laughing it up whilst shooting in Manhattan's Central Park.  Aside from the fact that everyone from Robert Downey Jr. to Stellan Skarsgard were present, it was a fairly low-key affair, with the superheroes wearing civilian outfits, except for Chris Hemsworth and Tom Hiddleston as Thor and Loki, who prefer their ostentatiously regal Asgardian outfits.  As I understand it, The Avengers is finishing up with principal photography, wrapping any moment now in New York, but a new round of images from the New York set this weekend show Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner in costume as Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye, respectively.  These contain what could very well be considered spoilers, but they also afford our best actual look at Renner in costume as SHIELD's premiere archer.

The Avengers is finishing up principal photography with two days filming exteriors in New York, the city so nice they named it New York.  That means we'll be seeing the end of all the delicious set photos that have provided untold insights and spoilers aplenty on the mega-team-up that Marvel Studios has been building towards for three years and no less than five movies.  As one final treat, a batch of new unofficial images from the Manhattan set have emerged online, and this batch is a particular delight.  Why?  Because it shows all the primary members of the team, along with Tom Hiddleston as Loki.  Chris Hemsworth sports his regal Asgardian outfit, while Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeremy Renner are all in civvies.  And hey, Stellan Skarsgard is present and accounted for, too.

Over the last few weeks, we've seen plenty of material related to The Avengers make its way online.  There was the new footage shown for the crowd at Disney's D23 Expo, and no shortage of unofficial photos and videos from the Ohio set, where the fair city of Cleveland has been doubling for New York.  Today, we have something a little different in the form of a promotional image depicting the whole illustrated superhero team properly assembled under the leadership of an equally-illustrated Chris Evans as Captain America. 

Anaheim, as you're almost surely aware, is home to Disneyland, a place where today ceases to exist and is replaced by a world of yesterday, tomorrow, and fantasy.  The city is also home to D23, the annual fan expo allowing Disney to put a spotlight on its upcoming projects and generally put on a good show for Disney fans of every demographic. 

This year, D23 was bigger than ever, with the studio positioning it as convention to rival Comic-Con International in San Diego.  Films including The Avengers, John Carter, Monsters University, Brave, and The Muppets all received elaborate presentations at D23 and each included an abundance of recognizable stars on hand to hock their cinematic wares.  As such, the green room provided many a photo opportunity, and here you'll find pictures of Jason Segel, Taylor Kitsch, Willem Dafoe, Lynn Collins, Billy Crystal, Kelly Macdonald, Kevin McKidd, Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Cobie Smulders, and even Marvel Studios head honco Kevin Feige.