This April will involve a lot of people crowding around giant televisions to watch Tom Cruise crawling around on the Burj Khalifa.  After Mission: Impossible III proved to be the franchise's least commercially successful installment back in 2006, there seemed to be assumption that both the series and Cruise were running on fumes. 

Then Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol closed out 2011 to a whole lot of acclaim.  The fourth film proved, amongst other things, that Cruise is still a movie star, Brad Bird can direct live-action with blockbuster aplomb and nimble wit, Paula Patton is a force to be reckoned with, and Simon Pegg can steal damn near any show.  You'll be able to experience the Kremlin exploding all over again, as Paramount has announced that Ghost Protocol is set to debut on Blu-ray, DVD, VOD, and digital download this April 17th.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is just a few days away from its release on IMAX screens, after which it will hit normal-sized theaters on December 21st.  As such, Paramount is saturating the market with Ghost Protocol promotion, including a brand new three-minute clip that consists exclusively of action, as Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt pursues some random dude into a sandstorm sweeping through Dubai.  The whole thing is set to a score by Michael Giacchino that doesn't hold back on the bongo fury.

Bigness is a prerequisite for blockbuster status, and there ain't nothing bigger than IMAX.  A new poster exclusive to midnight IMAX screenings of Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol reminds us all that the biggest movie star on the planet will be a movie where he dangles from the side of the tallest building in the world as part of a sequence filmed with the IMAX cameras.  Like The Dark Knight, the latest entry in the Mission: Impossible series used the cameras for specifics shots and sequences so to provide a properly bombastic blockbuster.  If you see the film in the jumbo-sized format at midnight this week, you'll be able to pick up your own copy of this poster, which is designed by artist Matt Owen, in your choice of a red or black background.  Or you can just save this image of the black version to your desktop.

As the sequel's IMAX release is less than two weeks away, Paramount Pictures has released yet another new official clip from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.  Unlike past clips, this one doesn't feature Jeremy Renner jumping into a turbine, or two gorgeous women in an all-out fisticuffs, or even Tom Cruise swinging around on the Burj Khalifa.  Instead, it has Cruise and Simon Pegg engaging in a little humorous interplay without actually exchanging a word.  Pegg is doing all the talking as Benji Dunn, the talkative tech expert introduced in the last film, Mission: Impossible III, while Cruise's Ethan Hunt just threateningly pantomimes at him via a hacked security camera.  When Hunt finally holds up a fist, it's rendered all the more effective by the tight white tank top (or "wifebeater," as it's colloquially known) he's wearing.

Now this is how you market a big action movie.  Paramount Pictures has released a brand new clip from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol clip, and it doesn't include a moment of Tom Cruise swinging around on the Burj Khalifa in Dubai or Jeremy Renner leaping to what could be his death.  Instead, this official clip relies on a market-tested, guaranteed method of generating interest.  How? Two absolutely beautiful women beating the shit out of each other.  In this case, the two gorgeous women throwing down are Paula Patton and Lea Seydoux, the former being an IMF agent on Ethan Hunt's team and the latter being affiliated with the bad guys.  Grab some popcorn and just imagine this knock-down drag-out bit of fisticuffs in IMAX.

Paramount Pictures has released a slew of official images and a new clip from Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which makes sense because the third sequel in the resilient franchise is set to hit theaters in less than a month.  As such, you've probably started to notice billboards, posters, television spots, and the like all including espionage action and Tom Cruise swinging around on the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

Okay, first up is the clip, but it requires a bit of context.  Last week, we posted a fresh clip that showed Jeremy Renner's Brandt getting all kinds of nervous before making a big leap.  The new clip is actually the set-up for the punchline that is that previously-released clip.  In this new one, Brandt and brains-of-the-operation Benji Dunn, played again by Simon Pegg, go over the plan in all its ludicrousness.  Brandt is understandably concerned, and Benji's flippantly repeated response earns a solid callback in the familiar clip. 

In the Mission: Impossible films, Tom Cruise's hero Ethan Hunt is always executing wildly dangerous acrobatic stunts without ever betraying even a hint of fear, but a new clip from the upcoming Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol changes gears just a little bit.  Cruise is on hand, as is Simon Pegg playing tech geek and exposition-machine Benji Dunn, but the man in action here is Jeremy Renner as the mysterious Brandt, who might just take over for Hunt s the lead in potential continued sequels.  Here, Brandt is about to take a huge, deadly looking leap, with some technology in his outfit meant to save his life.  In a refreshing change of pace, Brandt is nervous and freaked out about making the big move, fretting over the possibility of dying a horrific death in the middle of his vertiginous stunt.

The full theatrical trailer for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol is now available to view online.  Back in June, the third sequel to 1996's Mission Impossible practically strutted into public awareness with a first trailer that was a confident display of Tom Cruise running, jumping, and dangling that seemed to win over a lot of folks on the fence about another round of Ethan Hunt getting up to his eyes in espionage.  The second trailer does the same, providing just a little bit more plot, a whole lot less Eminem, and some global stakes.

The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building on Earth, a $1.5 billion dollar tower that stands 165 stories and 2,723 feet above the city of Dubai.  It was only a matter of time before Tom Cruise went crawling and swinging around on its exterior in a Mission: Impossible movie.  A new behind-the-scenes featurette on Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol shows Cruise doing just that, under the director of animation-master-turned-live-action-action-director Brad Bird.  It's thoroughly ridiculous – and I mean that in the most impressive way possible – to see how casually Cruise dangling and jumping in a scenario that looks pretty thoroughly terrifying to any sensible person.

Paramount Pictures has released a new official poster for Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, complete with Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, and Simon Pegg looking debonair with Dubai in the background, reminding us that Ethan Hunt will indeed dangle from the Burj Khalifa tower during the course of the sequel.

In August, a promotional image provided a template for what would be revealed in September as the first official poster, with both featuring Cruise glowering seriously out from beneath a hoodie.  Basically, the latter was the former, but closer-up on Cruise's face and with some code-like text running throughout.  Earlier this month, an IMAX-specific poster broke from the pattern by showing Cruise in one of the film's vertiginous action scenes shot in IMAX.  Now, we've got Ethan back in a hood, but this time, he's got company.