Tom Cruise to return in Mission: Impossible 4

Tom Cruise ready for his next mission

With a box office haul north of $266-million from Mission: Impossible III, it should not be the slightest surprise that Paramount pictures has now ordered yet another installment in Tom Cruise’s cash-cow.

This time, the studio — well,  mostly Tom — has tapped two unknown writers, Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec to come up with the script. Like other scribes in the franchise, the pair are not famous — yet — but have been imported from co-exec producer J.J. Abrams’ collection of TV productions; They wrote and co-produced four seasons of ‘Alias,’ and will create ‘MI 4′  based on a story which Abrams conceived.

“I’ve been looking forward to working with Josh and Andre again for years,” Abrams told Variety. “Their sense of balance between character and action is wonderful. We’re off to an exciting start, so fingers crossed.”

The two debutante scribes also created “October Road,” and translated the UK’s hit show, “Life on Mars” for ABC viewers, so they clearly have the right skills.

But while Abrams and Cruise will be the producers on ‘MI 4,’ fans are also assured that Tom’s ongoing character, ‘Ethan Hunt’ will be involved in the action on-screen. Directorial duties are not settled as yet, but the word is that Tom wants J.J to repeat his work at the helm of “MI 3,’ – which was a big hit with fans – and take over control of this movie as well.

There is no release date or cast info as yet, but Paramount say ‘MI 4′ is penciled-in for release in ‘mid-2011.’