On the heels of yesterday's announcement where Christopher Nolan revealed the title of the third Batman movie, Paramount Pictures has revealed the title for the fourth Mission: Impossible installment once again starring Tom Cruise: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. The film is currently shooting under the direction of Brad Bird (The Incredibles), making his live-action debut. The film also stars Jeremy Renner, Josh Holloway, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg. What do you think of the title? I think it's very interesting. With Brad Bird directing, Michael Giacchino once again composing the score, I think I'm really looking forward to this film.
I don't know why they didn't just call it MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE - 4. None of the other films in the series have carried a subtitle. But, as I said in the thread about THE DARK KNIGHT RISES, the title won't matter if the film is any good.
It actually makes me laugh a little when these long running series start to introduce subtitles after years without them. It's as if the the tag line should be "This time, we have a story. No really."
They get nervous these days about using a numbered title beyond the third film, unnecessarily in my opinion. The subtitle they've gone with sounds like a Splinter Cell game and makes the overall title too long and clunky, but it's at least better than The Mission, one of the rumored alternatives, which, although nice and short, would have been too cute by half for an M:I film and would have trod on the memory of the 1986 film.
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb was a pretty impressive title, but yeah, it doesn't work with MI4.
Studios have no problems making sequels, but don't want any perceived stigma with sequels. There was Die Hard 2 and Blade II but the third installments didn't have numbers. Hell, Saw, which has no problems coming out with a new movie EVERY SINGLE YEAR, won't call the latest movie Saw VII.
I like it. I think it's lame to call a sequel just "[Original Movie Title] [Roman Numeral]." That's lazy and uninformative. It's much better when a story has its own distinct title made of actual words that say something about the story. Of course, the original Mission: Impossible series tended to have very boring episode titles, like "The Trial," "The Diamond," "The Train," "The Bank," and the oh-so-informative "The Spy." But occasionally they had gems like "A Spool There Was," "The Short Tail Spy," "The Reluctant Dragon," "Echo of Yesterday," or "Trial by Fury." And the ones with clever titles were often among their better episodes.
It's as simple as the marketing folks realizing that without titles the sequels in most series should just be called "Movie IIV: Which One Was That?"
Beyond the initial theatrical release, a film now has a very long afterlife in other formats. Distinguishing each film to potential new viewers is even more important.
At least Mission Impossible is in the title. When the rumor came out it wouldn't be MI:4 I and others in a thread around here worried they wouldn't include the MI in the title. It's better than the title for TDK anyway.
Ghost Protocol? Sounds like the title to one of those Tom Clancy's insert name here book series. I wonder what it refers to?
I'm looking forward to this movie as the last was the best in the series, as Abrams is involved, as Brad Bird is directing and because of the excellent supporting cast. But boy, does that title suck!
I really can't imagine anyone going into a cinema and saying 'Can I have a ticket for Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. They'll just call it Mission Impossible 4.