In his first major (and confirmed) career move since wrapping six years of Island adventures on ABC's Lost, Josh Holloway, who infamously played James "Sawyer" Ford, has joined the ever-expanding international cast of Paramount Pictures Mission Impossible IV. He joins star Tom Cruise and a strong supporting cast that includes Paula Patton, Jeremy Renner, Vladimir Mashkov and Michael Nyqvist.
Brad Bird is directing the fourquel, with M:I:III director J.J. Abrams back in action as producer. Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec penned the screenplay for the film. Holloway will play a member of Ethan Hunt's new IMF team. The film will shoot all over the world, in exotic locations like Dubai and Prague, starting this December for a December 16th 2011 release.
For Holloway, the deal heralds a much-deserved sigh of relief. The TV vet has been trying to lock a project since Lost ended, but hasn't had much luck. He was rumored to play Gambit in last summer's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but lost the part to the much younger Taylor Kitsch (his rigorous Lost production schedule kept him from the part). Since then, he's been attached to a reboot of NBC's The Rockford Files that has never gone to pilot. I'd love to see him take over for James Garner as the easy going PI, but Holloway has earned a shot at the big screen, especially after losing out another high profile job (that would be Hawkeye in Paramount's upcoming superhero spectacular The Avengers) to his newly minted M:I:IV co-star Renner!
Source: THR