Unfamiliar Skies For Bird: Brad Bird is being considered for one of the most high-profile directing gigs currently out there: Tom Cruise’s upcoming Mission Impossible IV. With a release date already set for May 27, 2011, Cruise and producer J.J. Abrams are reportedly looking at Bird, who has only directed animated films up to this point, including The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Does this mean MI IV could actually end up being a poignant and witty film that moves along at an efficient clip? Nah, probably not. [Heat Vision/HR]
Diablo Stays Young: Mandate Pictures has optioned the rights to an original Diablo Cody comedy screenplay, Young Adult, to be produced by the team behind Juno. This is the same project she described to Vulture on Monday as a “serious and fucked-up†movie “about a woman who’s stalking her high-school sweetheart.†[Variety]
Two More Get Digits: Matt Bomer (White Collar) and Ari Graynor (Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist) are in talks to join the Anna Faris-Chris Evans comedy What’s Your Number?. The story follows a woman (Faris) on a journey through her “sexual past†to find her perfect man. Bomer will play the dream guy and Graynor will play Faris’ sister, whose wedding (of course) sets Faris on the trek in the first place. Not clear who Chris Evans will be playing, but Bomer should feel pretty stoked about achieving Dream Guy status over Captain America. [HR]
Bassett Goes Green: Angela Bassett has joined the cast of Green Lantern - featuring Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively - to play Amanda Waller, an overweight government agent who oversees a group of captured supervillains, creepily called the Suicide Squad. Yikes, sounds like someone got her groove taken away again! [Variety]
Buck Starts Here: Paul W.S. Anderson (Mortal Kombat, Resident Evil) will direct Buck Rogers, from a script by Iron Man co-writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway. Based on a comic book series, Rogers is about a fighter pilot who wakes up one day to find himself in the 25th century. For a split second we thought Paul T. Anderson was directing this, which would have made us infinitely more interested. [Variety]
Genie To Come Out Of Bottle Imminently: Christina Aguilera has announced the first single from her new album, Bionic, will be released to radio Tuesday. Called “Not Myself Tonight,†the song includes the lyrics “the old me’s gone I feel brand new / and if you don’t like it f*** you.†Pleasant! [Idolator]
More Tourists: Timothy Dalton and Steven Berkoff have just been added to The Tourist, which stars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp. Following the news, Dalton and Berkoff received Facebook messages from everyone they have ever known. [Variety]