Paula Patton has been given a mission, should she choose to accept it. And, apparently, she has, landing the female lead in Mission: Impossible IV, which is now a pseudo-reboot kind of starring Tom Cruise, but also Jeremy Renner. We already have details on the Brad Bird film, which seem to be up to date with all of the recent narrative changes. [Deadline]

Patton, who’s been on the fringes of stardom for the last 5 years (from Hitch to Deja Vu to an impressive turn in Precious), is in good company here. Cruise and J.J. Abrams are working with Paramount on a $140 million budget.

What’s funny about all of this is that although Paramount was apparently looking to stray from depending on Cruise’s star power after the semi-disaster that was Knight and Day, Renner and Patton add about zilch in terms of box office dollars, begging the question: what?

Was Justin Bieber not available?

Are you interested in seeing M:I IV? How much of a difference will Patton and Renner?

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Alfonso Cuaron‘s sci-fi project Gravity may have lost just that, despite having a movie star (Robert Downey Jr.) and an award-winning director in tow. Angelina “Salt” Jolie was approached to Cuaron a while back to star as the heroine in this film, which concerns a team of cosmonauts (the team leader being RDJ) who are nearly all wiped out by debris from a busted satellite.

Jolie’s character is left in a dire attempt to get back home to her son. Apparently, it’s a one-woman show or the most part, at least as the script (written by Cuaron and his son Jonas) reads now. There may need to be changes if Warner Bros. can’t find a bankable actress to take the reins.

The studio has allegedly met with all of the candidates, from Sandra Bullock to Natalie Portman to Sienna Miller to Blake Lively (who was once rumored to have taken over for Jolie), so they’re trying [Deadline].

Lets hope a solution is found, because Gravity sounds kind of incredible, especially with in its current $80 million 3D-shot state.

Are you excited for Gravity? Who should replace Jolie?

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Nicholas Winding Refn‘s actioner (which he calls a “romance”) is looking better and better. It started with Ryan Gosling in the nameless lead role, then Bryan Cranston jumped in the passenger seat months later. Now we have Academy Award-nominee Carey Mulligan in the car too. [THR]

Based on James Sallis‘ novel of the same name, the story revolves around a Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver for heists. He meets a woman, her son and her man, the latter offering him a getaway job that’s crucial to the central narative.

I’ve read the book and was not a fan. It’s small, fast and lacks much detail. The “driver” is about as descriptive as his character name and the plot is no more original. The writing reads like cheap James Ellroy in its best moments.

That said, Refn as proven himself a visually ambitious director and one who (presumably) let’s his talent “go.” Hopefully this freedom plus Gosling, Cranston and Mulligan’s presence will save what will most likely be a weak screenplay.

Have you read Sallis’ work? Watched Refn’s?

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Maggie Gyllenhaal is set to experience some Hysteria, directed by Tanya Wexler, a period rom-com concerning the invention of the sexual tool women everywhere love to love.

Gyllenhaal broke it down for The Guardian (via Film School Rejects):

“I play a firecracker whose father is a doctor who is in the business of curing hysterical women. He cures them basically by getting them off and that actually happened. I end up having a sort of unexpected love affair with this guy who works for him, and who by mistake invents the vibrator.”

Jonathan Pryce will play the father/doctor/accidental inventor. Hugh Dancy and Rupert Everett will co-star in the project. Hysteria is shooting for a 2011 release.

All of this begs the question: how will they sell such a genre-bender? And can Gyllenhaal carry an indie film past critical acclaim and towards financial recognition?

Are you interested in this? Do you like Gyllenhaal’s work?

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This one should be good. Sony’s spy thriller The Tourist, starring Angelina Jolie, Johnny Depp, Paul Bettany, Rufus Sewell and Timothy Dalton, will indeed sliver its way into theaters this year – December 10th to be exact. [The Playlist]

Directed by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (The Lives of Others) and written by Julian Fellowes (Gosford Park), Christopher McQuarrie (Valkyrie, The Usual Suspects) and Jeffrey Nachmanoff (The Day After Tomorrow, Traitor), this film’s pedigree couldn’t get much more impressive, making it one of the most anticipated films of late 2010.

Based on the 2005 French film Anthony Zimmer, the film concerns an aloof American tourist (Depp) who gets caught up in espionage with a vivacious international spy (Jolie). Those who’ve read it suggest it’s not Oscar material and more light, fun and, potentially, a little shallow.

It’s hard to imagine with a cast and crew like this, but it happens all the time. At least we know Jolie can play a spy and Depp can mumble and be awkward.

Are you excited for The Tourist? What are you expecting it’ll be like?

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The answer is 11. Only months ago, the defunct Miramax had left Julie Taymor‘s much-anticipated The Tempest in the dark. What should’ve been creative art-house (potential Oscar) fodder didn’t have a distributor or release date.

Now Touchstone is distributing on December 10th and we have a few production stills (two shown above) and an amazing poster (arguably the best of the year) to boot.

Form your own opinion below (via The Playlist):
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Looks like Mr. Hawke will have to learn how to play the violin. Or at least act like he knows how to play the violin. The thesp will star in A Late Quartet, directed by Yaron Zilberman (2004′s Watermarks). The film will tell the story of a 25-year-old string quartet and the departure of one of its members, who’s dealing with Parkinson’s Disease. [The Playlist]

Hawke’s violinist will be one wrought with guilt due to infidelity/betrayal. That sounds about right.

Hawke’s been on a nice, ‘back-to-the-basics’ run of decisions, after a trio of not-so-great crime films (What Doesn’t Kill You, Staten Island, Brooklyn’s Finest). He’s still working on Richard Linklater’s neverending 12-year project, he’s got the New York, I Love You-sounding Tonight at Noon in post along with Woman in the Fifth, a super-interesting sounding film with a noir-ish plot, co-starring Kristin Scott Thomas.

In short, the man’s been consistently undervalued and hopefully this indie work/push into thriller territory will remind people how essential he is to American cinema.

Do you like Ethan Hawke? Will he make a good violinist?

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As well they should. After two trip-up openings in The Back-Up Plan and Extraordinary Measures, rookie CBS Films needs a change…already. And they’re making it, with Dwayne Johnson‘s actioner Faster coming down the pipe, only to be followed by CBS’ first distribution pick-up, Statham’s remake of the 1972 Charles Bronson action film The Mechanic. [Coming Soon]

Millennium Films produced the remake, which stars Statham as a hitman and Ben Foster as his mentor, who is more than he seems. The film is directed by Simon West and produced by Irwin Winkler (Rocky), who actually produced the original (how old is this guy?)

Statham is a movie star, and one of the only credible action stars still making movies on any regular basis. Between trying to revive The Rock’s Rundown days and banking on Statham’s hairy charms, they’re being smart finally.

It would seem.

Do you like Statham? Johnson? CBS Films?

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This potential news feels at once appropriate and not so much. Tony Scott is purportedly considering taking the director’s chair on The Associate, an adaptation of the John Grisham novel of the same name, about a young lawyer thrust into a high-profile law firm under the blackmailing guise of a corrupt defense contractor looking for secrets. [First Showing] Screenwriter William Monahan (The Departed) and movie star Shia LaBeouf have both been on board pretty much since the novel was released on book shelves.

Scott is a (semi) reliable action director, but he’s never done corporate espionage (Enemy of the State comes somewhat close, I guess) and, to be honest, it seems to “easy” for the man. Which is to say it doesn’t seem overbearingly-convoluted enough. But then Scott has made a late career out of convoluted, taking films that once were simple kidnapping tales (Man On Fire) and turning them into rampaging, green-tinted, jump-cutted morality tales. Or a biopic (Domino) into a half flicker film/half satire, or a movie about a time traveling cop (Deja Vu) into, well, okay that one was always crazy.

Let us remember the two most successful Grisham adaptations (The Rainmaker and Runaway Jury) were directed by a money-grubbing Francis Ford Coppola and studio friend Gary Fleder, respectively. The courtroom rarely abides visual creativity.

Provided Scott takes the job, will his style work for corporate intrigue?

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Disney has picked up Tron Legacy director Joseph Kosinski‘s next project, Oblivion, which tells of “a future Earth, where civilization lives above the clouds and scavengers collect ancient artifacts from the polluted surface below. When one young scavenger finds a crashed spacecraft planetside, it lead him on a journey filled with romance and adventure.” [THR]

Kosinski has found producers in Radical Comics, with Barry Levine and Jesse Berger credited as such. The comics company has published the graphic novel of the same name, which has Kosinski credited as “creator” and Arvid Nelson and Andree Wallin credited as writer and artist, respectively.

Below is some of the artwork [First Showing]:

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