Tom Cruise Signs Up for Mission: Impossible IV

Star reteams with Paramount to reprise the role of Ethan Hunt, four years after last film did so-so at box office

By Natalie Finn Feb 09, 2010 11:40 PMTags
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Who says you can't go home again?

More than three years after Tom Cruise was unceremoniously ushered off the Paramount Pictures lot, the not-so-controversial-anymore movie star is reteaming with the studio for a fourth Mission: Impossible film, Cruise's rep confirms to E! News.

The 47-year-old family man will be reprising the role of Ethan Hunt, secret agent extraordinaire, in the latest sequel, set to start shooting this summer in time for a release around Memorial Day 2011.

There's no director yet, but Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec have been tapped to write the script.

Mission: Impossible III director J.J. Abrams, no longer a gamble as far as feature-filmdom goes thanks to Star Trek, will coproduce along with Cruise.

MI3 did respectable but underwhelming business at the box office, prompting Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone to terminate Cruise's production deal at Paramount in August 2006, citing Cruise's ginormous paycheck for MI3 and some of his more questionable behavior at the time as part of the problem.

But a billion adorable pictures of Suri Cruise later...

"Tom and J.J. are great talents and we are excited to be working with them to relaunch this legendary franchise," Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey said in a statement Tuesday.

News of the sequel was first reported by Deadline Hollywood.

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Before MI4 blows up, Tom cruises into theaters in Knight and Day. We've got him and a bunch of other stars Snapped on Set right here!