Tom Cruise to star in MISSION IMPOSSIBLE 4, but J.J. Abrams won't direct

It's great news that Tom Cruise has firmly committed to leading a fourth Mission Impossible outing, which Deadline say Paramount have set a Memorial Day weekend 2011 release date too. It's also great news that the movie will be led by his Ethan Hunt, and it won't be a passing of the torch flick where he mentors a new team of special agents as previously rumoured. It's Cruise all the way, which is great because I can't imagine this franchise continuing without him. As we said on 07.08.09, Alias co-executive producers/writers Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec are writing the fourth movie in the absence of Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman who are writing Star Trek 2. That sci-fi sequel has also taken away director J.J. Abrams who will only produce MI:4, favouring to direct another Kirk & Spock adventure instead. Abrams & Cruise are on the lookout for a director to helm the sequel. If God existed... Paul Greengrass (Green Zone, The Bourne Ultimatum)or Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, Duplicity) would give Abrams a call and say "me, me, me". Hell, Steven Spielberg can't get a motion picture off the ground these days - so why the hell not?