MI:3 Gets Fishy...

Hey guys, it's Donnie...Okay, so MI:3 has the official greenlight from Paramount, they'll be filming in China, JJ Abrams of Lost and Alias fame will be directing and Tom Cruise and Ving Rhames will officially be joined by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, and Michelle Monaghan in unspecified roles, Keri Russell (Felicity) as a young spy in training (originally to be played by Scarlett Johansson before massive reshuffling) and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the Evil Bad Guy of Evil. (Cruise wanted Hoffman, couldn't get him due to schedule conflicts, cast Kenneth Branagh instead, and then gave him the boot and got Hoffman anyway.)

And now another player has jumped onboard: Laurence Fishburne, playing "Ethan Hunt's mentor". Seeing as Fishburne really isn't all that much older than Cruise, I'm going to assume that means that Fishburne is going to be taking over the Anthony Hopkins role from the second flick.

I really don't know how I feel about Mission: Impossible. I really enjoyed the first film, thought the second was nonsensical at best (someone really needs to do something about John Woo and his ridiculous overuse of doves.) and this one has been going through the developmental revolving door pretty much since the last one was released. I think they've got a pretty solid cast here and JJ Abrams can pretty much do spy stuff in his sleep at this point. I'll be really interested once we start to hear plot elements find their way to the public.