'Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol' Getting Released Early in IMAX

Source: Hero Complex
by Alex Billington
We've got some awesome news about Brad Bird's Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol. Hero Complex has revealed that Paramount will be releasing the fourth Mission: Impossible in a small block of IMAX theaters five days early, starting on Friday, December 16th. Regular theaters will later be opening the film starting December 21st, right in time for Christmas week. The release will hit 200 IMAX theaters and is designed to bring back a "level of showmanship" to the opening of a Hollywood film. Brad Bird himself approves of and is actually behind this plan, which sounds amazing because it has scenes shot in IMAX.

Brad Bird himself revealed the news in an interview with Geoff Boucher on Hero Complex, where he talks about the decision and his thoughts on 3D and the film itself. This is awesome news because we there's a portion of that was actually shot on IMAX, including the Burj Khalifa tower scene seen in the first trailer already. In regards to that "showmanship" comment, here's the full quote from Bird about why they decided to do this to begin with, even though it involved pushing Paramount to make it happen. He explains:

"The two things that movies have that you can't get anywhere else are really big screens and an audience... I feel like multiplexes and the shutting down of the grand old theaters have taken a lot of the showmanship out of presenting movies. There used to be a thing such as 'first run.' The meaning of 'first run' is gone now because on opening day you can see a brand new movie on a good screen but it's more likely you'll see it on a crappy screen. And it can even be a small, crappy screen. It used to be that when a movie opened, if you wanted to see it early, you had to see it great. To me, the best example of showmanship now is IMAX. I pushed to shoot in IMAX, and Paramount went along with me, so we filmed a good chunk of this movie in IMAX, which is a pain in the butt. The cameras are big and they're noisy. But the image quality – you can't get that any other way... you really feel it when it's in IMAX. Maybe one of these days I'll get to do a whole film that way."
I hope so, too! I've heard that The Dark Knight Rises is already getting a lot shot in IMAX as well. Briefly, Bird also mentioned 3D, explaining that he felt the "added depth perception is immersive, but you dim the image down" and therefore they wanted to focus on the big screen over dim 3D, hence why this is not being shown in 3D. In regards to that five day jump, Bird says: "We were able to get five days. Every studio likes to have bragging rights to the biggest opening numbers... The average viewer doesn't experience how much money is made on opening weekend. What they experience is their experience. I wanted the first people that see the film to see it big with a sharp image and great sound systems, so when they went out and talked about the movie they saw, we would know that they had seen it at its best." I could not agree more!

Bird also briefly talks about the tone and the comedy, mentioning that "when you see the film, it's a little more playful than the other Mission: Impossible films — hopefully without undermining the suspense or action... The humor is there but it's not done in a self-conscious, wink-wink, Roger-Moore-as-James-Bond way, and it doesn't undercut the action. That's a tone I was inspired by and wanted to get to some extent in this, but without making it the oddball Mission: Impossible." You can read the full interview and details on the news on Hero Complex. This is quite exciting, as I'm already looking forward to this and I totally support everything Bird said, and can't wait to see this in IMAX. Who's going to be there on the 16th?

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