UPDATED: Paramount Pictures just released an official press release announcing the project for a May 28, 2011 release with Paramount Pictures Chairman and CEO Brad Grey quoted saying, “Tom and J.J. are great talents and we are excited to be working with them to re-launch this legendary franchise.”
Deadline is fast and furious with consistent bits of casting news that are, of all things, actually interesting. The latest confirms what many of us probably assumed even though it wasn’t yet official, but Tom Cruise has signed on to star in Mission: Impossible 4, but perhaps the question most people are more interested in is who will direct.
Mike Fleming at Deadline says while J.J. Abrams is still aboard as producer he has not signed on to direct the follow-up to Mission: Impossible III, which Abrams directed back in 2006. Reviews on that film were, for the most part, strong, but the $134 million the film managed domestically was seen as a disappointment at the time considering the reported $150 million budget. It went on to earn just shy of $400 million worldwide.
The script for M:I4 was penned by Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec and hope is to make the film Cruise’s next with filming to begin soon for a Memorial Day 2011
(May 27) release. Expectation is for this to be very much an Ethan Hunt driven flick with Cruise front and center.
Cruise most recently completed filming Knight and Day with Cameron Diaz for 20th Century Fox, which will be released on July 2, 2010. You can check out the trailer for that film here.
