Tom Cruise accepts a fourth 'Mission: Impossible'

Paramount severed its relationship with Tom Cruise four years ago, leaving many to think that another installment in the "Mission:  Impossible" movie franchise was, well, impossible.  But there's an old saying in Hollywood:  "I don't want to see that SOB on this lot again unless we really, really need him."

Variety reports that Cruise will return as secret agent Ethan Hunt in "Mission:  Impossible IV," which he will co-produce with JJ Abrams, who directed "Mission:  Impossible III," easily the best film in the series to date.  A release date has already been set--Memorial Day weekend, 2011, which is shaping up to be a box office bloodbath.  Warner Brothers' anticipated "Hangover" sequel is opening that weekend, which will also be the second weekend of Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean:  On Stranger Tides."

Note that we know when the fourth "Pirates" movie is supposed to open, though Disney has yet to announce a firm start date.

Cruise and Abrams, who co-wrote the "Mission: Impossible III," will produce from a screenplay by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec, who were hired last summer to pen the script from an idea hatched by Cruise and Abrams. Appelbaum and Nemec spent four seasons with Abrams as co-exec producers of "Alias."

 A director has not been named.  Abrams' next directing assignment is widely expected to be a sequel to his very successful "Star Trek" reboot from this past summer.