Paramount Pictures has recently released a new promotional image from their upcoming Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol showing a hooded Tom Cruise looking pensive while standing in front of a scene of major destruction. You can check out a larger, full version of the image by clicking the thumbnail at the bottom of this post.

I spotted a portion of Moscow’s Red Square in the background, so I’m assuming this is depicting the Kremlin bombing that puts the film’s plot in motion. In Ghost Protocol, when the Kremlin is destroyed and Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his Impossible Mission Force team are implicated in the bombing, they must go on the run to find the real culprits and clear their name lest they be branded as terrorists.

Brad Bird, who has previously brought us beloved animated classics like The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, makes his live-action directorial debut from a screenplay written by Christopher McQuarrie (The Usual Suspects, Way of the Gun) and television scribes/producers Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec (Live on Mars, Alias). J.J. Abrams, the director of the previous M:I sequel, returns on producing duties.

Joining Cruise on this latest mission are Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Paula Patton (Precious), Simon Pegg (Hot Fuzz), Ving Rhames (Out of Sight), Josh Holloway (Lost), and Tom Wilkinson (The Ghost Writer). Robert Elswit, the cinematographer on every Paul Thomas Anderson movie (among many others), serves as the director of photography. On editing duties is Paul Hirsch, whose numerous credits include the first two Star Wars movies (the original trilogy, not the prequels) and many of Brian De Palma’s earlier films. Michael Giacchino (Star Trek, The Incredibles), who provided the music for the previous Mission Impossible sequel, returns to score Ghost Protocol.

Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol opens on December 21, 2011.

[Source: Yahoo! Movies ]