Tom Cruise says he has started work on MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4!

The 2006 Summer release of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE III was supposed to be the revival of Tom Cruises' mainstream popularity but despite decent worldwide box office takings and what I thought was a frikkin' killer of an action movie, the Tom/Kat thing overshadowed everything. He could have made THE GODFATHER in 2006 and they would have been talking about Tom/Kat and not how good a movie he had made. We know Cruise has been desperate to return to the action genre, a place he feels comfortable in right now and I've almost gone blue in the face telling you that he is probably making THE TOURIST with Charlize Theron and the director of THE LIVES OF OTHERS as his next movie, despite what you might read elsewhere. But here's word of a movie he may have lined up a little further down the line. An AICN reader was watching Japanese T.V. when he stumbled across word of MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4...

Tom Cruise was on the popular SMAP SMAP program here in Japan (HERE), and when asked about the Mission Impossible franchise he revealed that he has started work on the fourth installment...he's working on the story right now. He also commented that during his visit here he'd been thinking about how to stage a big action sequence in downtown Tokyo..dunno if he was just being polite, but sounds like a cool setting for the series, what?

Funny how he has begun developing MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4 just as his close pal and MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 3 director J.J. Abrams has completed STAR TREK and is probably looking to his next picture. I would LOVE to see them do another movie together. I can't say it will be the film to win Cruise back into the hearts and minds of Joe-Public but for purely selfish reasons, I don't give a damn. I just wanna see them work together again.