Woo hoo! Finally a trailer for the latest installment in the Tom Cruise franchise, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol ! The latest entry is helmed by Brad Bird, making his live-action directorial debut. He’s most well known for directing animated classics, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. Frankly, I think that’s great preparation for this. He should have no trouble animating Tom Cruise.

After watching the trailer I know two things. First, I still have no idea what the film is about. Although does that really matter? It’s got great locations, great stunts, gadgets and explosions. From the very first this has kind of been the ‘Americanization of James Bond’ and that’s just fine with me considering how long we have to go between Bond films. Tom Cruise is no Daniel Craig but luckily, he does surround himself with good actors. This time around we get Jeremy Renner (YAY!), Josh Holloway, Mikael Nyqvist (another YAY! I’m glad we’ll see him in something other than the Millenium Trilogy!), Simon Pegg (I have no idea if his role is comedic or dramatic since we only see him walking across a lobby, but I’m excited he’s in it in any case) and Anil Kapoor.  On the distaff side, we get Leah Seydoux (Robin Hood, Midnight in Paris) and Paula Patton (Precious).

The second thing I know from the trailer is that the song Eminem recorded for the film kicks ass. But is it just me or did you imagine Les Grosman* rockin’ out to it?

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol haunts theaters in the US beginning December 16, 2011.

*Tom Cruise’s character from Tropic Thunder. If you haven’t seen it, I can’t explain it.