TOM CRUISE TAKES ON ANOTHER MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise has agreed to take on a fourth Mission: Impossible.
The actor's decision to revitalise the action-packed film franchise has taken the movie industry by surprise.
It was widely regarded that pulling off such a deal would truly be an impossible mission because of Cruise's bitter row with Paramount studio boss Sumner Redstone.
Cruise will co-produce Mission: Impossible IV along with his friend J.J. Abrams, who directed the star on the 2006 third instalment of the adventure flicks which went on to earn US$395 million worldwide.
Paramount hope to have the latest Mission: Impossible film in cinemas in 2011.
The future of the Mission: Impossible series was thrown into doubt -- at least as far as Cruise returning to his role as American agent Ethan Hunt was concerned -- after Redstone, head of Paramount's parent company Viacom, ended his studio's long relationship with the 46-year-old star three months after the third movie opened.
Relatively speaking, MI:3 was a box-office disappointment, since the
second film grossed US$545 million worldwide and the original raked in
US$452 million.
Apparently irked by the amount of cash Cruise was making from his deal with Paramount, among with other issues such as the actor's involvement with the controversial church of Scientology and his bizarre behaviour after falling for his current wife, actress Katie Holmes, Redstone abruptly terminated the 14-year relationship.
Cruise’s then agent, Rick Nicita, termed Redstone’s decision “shockingly offensive and graceless.”
The rift led to Cruise becoming the chief of rival studio United Artists and taking a more active role in production decisions.
Redstone, meanwhile, has sought to heal the relationship. At a recent appearance, he described the star as “a great actor and a good friend.”
Nevertheless, rumours circulated in Hollywood last year about a Paramount executive suggesting that Cruise would do well to merely produce another sequel and the plot be rewritten for a younger star.
“Though the ostensible meeting to discuss that scenario was denied by those who would know, the reteaming of Cruise and Abrams is intriguing for what it says -- or leaves unanswered -- about another instalment,” said Jay A. Fernandez, a movie industry writer for the prestigious Hollywood Reporter newspaper.
Movie maker Abrams is currently a hot item in Hollywood for revitalising the Star Trek film franchise, which has already earned US$335 million worldwide since opening six weeks ago.
Although Abrams is so far not on board to direct the new Mission: Impossible, it is understood that he and Cruise will work closely on coming up with a new plot.
It is thought the pair could reconceive it in a way that is closer to the ensemble approach of the old TV series.
Or they could reconfigure the storyline so that Cruise's Hunt is less the central action man character but some kind of mentor to the new M:I crew, , according to Hollywood movie industry observers.
So far no writers have been hired to work on the fourth film.
“Then again, no one can rule out Cruise as the guy who will carry the franchise for the duration,” said Fernandez. “He remains a bona fide star, having pushed the UA thriller Valkyrie, saddled as it was with tons of bad media pre-release, to US$200 million in worldwide grosses.”
And Harrison Ford, 66, and 54-year-old Bruce Willis recently managed to carry their Indiana Jones and Die Hard franchises forward with fourth blockbuster instalments -- and both are considerably older than Cruise.
Work on Mission: Impossible IV could be delayed by the Cruise's and Abrams' busy schedules.
Abrams will be responsible for guiding the Star Trek sequel, while Cruise recently committed to an untitled picture that will be directed by James Mangold and co-star Cameron Diaz.
Cruise and Denzel Washington are also awaiting a rewrite of the script for the thriller The Matarese Circle, to be directed by David Cronenberg and based on a novel by author Robert Ludlum.