International actors, Anil Kapoor and Léa Seydoux are the most recent additions to the Mission: Impossible 4 cast; which already includes: Tom Cruise (Ethan Hunt), Ving Rhames (Luther Stickell), and Simon Pegg (Benji Dunn).

The fourth installation of the Mission Impossible franchise will also include: Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton, Vladimir Mashkov, and Josh Holloway.

Ms. Seydoux is a French actress who appeared in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds as well as Ridley Scott’s Robin Hood. She is also starring in Woody Allen’s upcoming Midnight In Paris. The actress will play a villain in M:I-4, which is currently in production in a variety of international locales - including a planned trip to Dubai.

Deadline reported earlier today that Slumdog Millionaire’s Anil Kapoor had been cast to play another villain in the film. It was later discovered that Kapoor is in fact in negotiations to play an "integral supporting role," who is not a villain, though the nature of the role has not been revealed. Perhaps some aspect of his character would constitute a spoiler for the film - were it to be revealed.

The Brad Bird (Ratatouille, The Incredibles) directed Mission: Impossible 4 is stacking the decks with a cast that will likely appeal to a wide spectrum of the viewing audience. While, expanding the size of the cast is necessary in order to keep a franchise fresh, character bloat can create story issues. The Mission: Impossible films have always had fairly sizable and heavy-hitting roster, so the casting choices for the fourth film have not come as a huge surprise.

It will be interesting to see if the assembled talent will be enough to overcome Tom Cruise’s public image struggles over the last few years. Knight and Day did not perform as well as the filmmakers had hoped (or was expected at the box office). That said, I found the film to be a fun and charming action-comedy - sort of an updated version of the old fashioned romantic caper.

Mission: Impossible 4 is scheduled for release on December 16, 2011.

Sources: Coming Soon and Deadline

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