Today, from the Department of Foregone Conclusions, comes very early confirmation that Michael Giacchino will be returning to compose the score for the Star Trek sequel that has caused such hand-wringing amongst fans over the last several months.  His involvement was more or less expected as soon as JJ Abrams confirmed he would return for another round of spacefaring action, since Giacchino has scored all three of Abrams' feature films, from Mission: Impossible III through Star Trek and Super 8.  Not only that, but he also worked on the Abrams-produced television series Lost, Alias, Fringe.

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.

Much has been made of J.J. Abrams' predilection towards secrecy with upcoming projects, and in a commercial environment that usually puts release dates first, an apparent lack of progress on Star Trek 2 had many fans frustrated and worried that the project wouldn't come together.  Abrams has said publicly, though, that he and his creative team are intent on making a quality sequel, not meeting a release date.  Well, today there's a substantial update that should thrill worried fans, as production on the sequel to 2009's backdoor reboot is scheduled to begin in January, with location scouting underway and a script at the third draft.

So The Adventures of Tintin, the first motion capture film from director Steven Spielberg, played at AFI Fest last night to ecstatic reviews and is already popular in all the numerous international territories where it has been playing for weeks.  That makes it even more difficult to wait for the film's Christmas release Stateside, where moviegoers just aren't as familiar with the titular boy-reporter created by cartoonist Herge.  In order to convey exactly the tone of Tintin to American audiences, a new domestic TV spot goes out of its way to drop a critical quote that calls it, "The perfect combination of Pirates of the Caribbean and Indiana Jones," two properties that promise swashbuckling good times.

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.

Another new trailer for The Adventures of Tintin has debuted online, and this time its a domestic preview for North American audiences, who must wait until December to see the film.  Which is a damn shame, since every new bit of footage suggests that the latest from director Steven Spielberg and producer Peter Jackson is an exceedingly joyous ride that utilizes cutting edge performance capture and 3D tech to tell an old-fashioned globe-trotting yarn.  As the movie nears its late-October release in many international territories, review have been popping up, and many suggest that The Adventures of Tintin is the spiritual heir to Raider of the Lost Ark that everyone hoping Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull would be.  This trailer certainly supports that assertion, so watch away.

So The Adventures of Tintin has been having European premieres in advance of its late October to early November debuts in most countries on the continent where Herge's boy reporter is basically an icon known and beloved across all demographics.  Here in America, though, we have to wait until late December to see Steven Spielberg's first 3D performance capture film.  Our consolation prize today is a new domestic poster for the inaugural 3D Tintin movie, featuring the titular adventurer, played by Jamie Bell, and his faithful canine sidekick, Snowy the dog.  The intrepid duo poses in front of a flaming ship, which just so happens to be the Unicorn referred to in the film's international title, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn.