The disaster drama The Impossible, the English-language debut of director Juan Antonio Bayona (The Orphanage), now finally has a U.S. release date.  Per Deadline, Lionsgate has slated the film for a December 21st release, pitting it against Judd Apatow’s This Is 40, the Tom Cruise-fronted Jack Reacher, and Kathryn Bigelow’s thriller Zero Dark Thirty.  That’s some formidable competition on the wide front, but The Impossible should benefit from the limited debut in New York and Los Angeles on that date.The pic stars Ewan McGregor and Naomi Watts as parents of a family caught in the tsunami that hit Thailand in 2004, with a story that promises “  “true-life terror is tempered by the unexpected displays of compassion, courage and simple kindness that Maria (Watts) and her family encounter during the darkest hours of their lives.”  The level of devastation on display in the film’s trailer is truly massive, and I’m interested in seeing how the drama plays out against the backdrop of this horrific catastrophe.