csaI am breaking out my good silverware because I may be soon eating my own words. I have had no faith that Mission: Impossible 3 would ever actually get started, but now I see that Paramount has greenlit the picture and set a start date – July 18th.

Honestly, I don’t care about any of it all that much. I don’t think the films are all that great beyond being something to watch on a rainy Saturday on HBO. But the next bit of news gets me a little more excited – Philip Seymour Hoffman has been cast in the movie!

PSH, one of our great modern actors, will be playing the film’s main villain. Tom Cruise had wanted him for M:I3 like four directors ago, but scheduling at the time ruled it out. But now that the film has been delayed almost as long as the next Guns n Roses album, PSH can find the time to film.

Cruise and PSH of course worked together in Magnolia, a film that must come to mind whenever we see Cruise on TV lately. Was he ever able to shed that Frank Mackie persona? A terrified nation wants to know!