Three of this holiday season's highest profile releases got new dates today.  We'll start with the most unusual.  Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol has the same wide release date: Wednesday, December 21.  According to Deadline, Paramount will preview MI4 in "select theaters" on Friday, December 16.  I am curious how many theaters this will involve.  I don't recall seeing this type of thing before---a blockbuster preview several days before the initial release.

Paramount also moved The Adventures of Tintin up from December 23 to open wide with the Mission: Impossible sequel on December 21.  Meanwhile, Disney will shift this year's other Steven Spielberg feature, War Horse, from December 28 to Christmas Day.  More, including official synopses, after the jump.

Here's what the packed calendar looks like on Christmas week:

  • December 21 - The Adventures of Tintin, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • December 23 - We Bought a Zoo, In the Land of Blood and Honey
  • December 25 - War Horse, The Darkest Hour, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Click here for all our MI4 coverage.  Official synopsis:

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Director Brad Bird and Producer J.J. Abrams bring us the action packed, entertainment event of the holiday season with MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – GHOST PROTOCOL. This is not just another mission. The IMF is shut down when it’s implicated in a global terrorist bombing plot. Ghost Protocol is initiated and Ethan Hunt and his rogue new team must go undercover to clear their organization’s name. No help, no contact, off the grid. You have never seen a mission grittier and more intense than this.

Click here for all our Tintin coverage.  Official synopsis:

Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures Present “The Adventures of Tintin” directed by Steven Spielberg from a screenplay by Steven Moffat and Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish. Starring Jamie Bell (“Billy Elliot,” “Defiance”) as Tintin, the intrepid young reporter whose relentless pursuit of a good story thrusts him into a world of high adventure, and Daniel Craig (“Quantum of Solace,” “Defiance”) as the nefarious Red Rackham.

Click here for all our War Horse coverage.  Official synopsis:

DreamWorks Pictures’ “War Horse,” director Steven Spielberg’s epic adventure, is a tale of loyalty, hope and tenacity set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War. “War Horse” begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets–British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter–before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land. The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse–an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. “War Horse” is one of the great stories of friendship and war– a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is arriving on Broadway next year. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.

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