Well, while it is no surprise that Tom Cruise would be back for a fourth Mission: Impossible, it always seemed to be a matter of when Paramount would get around to throwing him the requisite big pile of cash to do it.
Well, we don’t know how much cash Paramount threw, but today’s the day they apparently threw it. Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Paramount has just signed a deal with the actor to star and produce the next installment of the action franchise. Mission: Impossible 3 director and producer J J Abrams will be back to produce. Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec, who served as writer-producers on Abrams Alias TV series, have been hired to script the film.
The only thing missing from the line up is a director. However, since the studio is looking to have the film before cameras this summer for a Memorial Day 2011 release, they better hurry up or else getting this film in theaters on time will become its own impossible mission.