Tom Cruise Back for MI:4! JJ Abrams? Not so much.

It's been known for some time that Tom Cruise and J.J. Abrams were  teaming up again for Mission Impossible 4, but with Abrams' commitments to Star Trek now that it was a bonafide success, there was no idea to what capacity he would serve. Well now we know.  According to Deadline.com, Cruise has officially signed on to reprise his role as Ethan Hunt in the series. Abrams, however, will not be in the director's chair. He will maintain his role as co-producer, though.

The plan is that the fourth film will be soft reboot of sorts. I'm assuming that means we'll lose all of Hunt's previous colleagues(including Ving Rhames, unfortunately) and start off on a new mission from scratch. The working  release date at this point is for Memorial Day 2011.

I dug the initial MI flick, then the 2nd one by John Woo was a dove filled disaster. Abrams got things back on  track with the last one, but without him I'm back to having reservations again. Looking at prospects to take over, I can already see someone like Pierre Morel(Taken, From Paris with Love) as an acceptable substitute. Only time will tell, but I bet it won't be long before we know.