Paramount Pictures has signed the deal with Mr. Cruise to star in the fourth installment of the successful spy series. “The intention is to make this Cruise’s next film and start shooting by summer for a Memorial Day 2011 weekend release.” [Deadline Hollywood]

Television writing team Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec are writing the script.

Cruise will, of course, produce along with J.J. Abrams, who directed the underrated M:I III. Blame it on the whole couch thing.

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Rumors are swirling about one of the most talked about films at Sundance, a on the fly social media documentary following the real life story of two filmmakers and how one of their brothers becomes entranced in an online romance called ‘Catfish‘. The buzz this documentary has received from Sundance has probably been the best of any film to come out of this year’s festival, with many audience members consensus that this might have the most mainstream potential of most of the Sundance flock. Yesterday it was reported by First Showing, that the film was being screened at a Paramount lot where that attendees should “have seen and enjoyed” films like Cloverfield, Paranormal Activity, Slumdog Millionaire or An Inconvenient Truth. Seems like Paramount could be potentially positioning this film to be their next big indie hit. To add fire to these allegations, additional mumblings about Paramount heavyweights J.J Abrams and Jason Blum are also said to be pushing for the film to be released through their studio. However at 1am, Deadline reported that Brett Ratner has made an offer for ‘Catfish‘ with no need for test screenings. The race for the film is heating up and I’m sure filmmakers Ariel Schulman and Henry Joost are enjoying their options.

Do you want to see “Catfish“?

Back in November we told you that Star Trek 2 wasn’t going to be released any time before 2012. Star Trek and Avatar star Zoe Saldana has also said they will start pre-production at the end of this year. Thanks to Coming Soon it can be confirmed that the official release date for Star Trek 2 will be June 29, 2012. With this summer’s smash hit raking in almost $400 million worldwide, it was only a matter of time before an official announcement. My only question is if director J.J. Abrams will be able to finish his new mystery project before that. Check back here at The Film Stage for continuing coverage on Star Trek 2.

What do you want to see in a Star Trek sequel?

Avatar and Star Trek star Zoe Saldana recently spoke to MTV about her upcoming films, including the follow up to this year’s summer hit, J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek. Read the full story

In a recent New York Times interview with Paramount Chairman Brad Grey (a University at Buffalo graduate) talked about director J.J. Abrams and have a hint that his next film may not be a Star Trek sequel. Check out the quote below. Read the full story

Colum McCann’s novel Let The Great World Spin is a a series of separate stories about a number of characters around New York at the time Phillippe Petit performed his high-wire stunt in the early 70s (the subject of  2008’s Best Documentary winner Man on Wire). THR is reporting that McCann is writing a  screenplay for JJ Abram’s Bad Robot company to produce. The original novel follows these characters: Read the full story

Last night at the DVD/Blu-Ray premiere of Star Trek ScifiWire got some scoops on Star Trek 2. First, off Producer/writer Damon Lindelof stated why the time frame for the next installment won’t be until 2012. Read the full story

Way back in February 2007, it was announced that J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof, the original team behind ABC’s mega-hit Lost, would be adapting author Stephen King’s seven book epic The Dark Tower into film, most likely as a series. News was trickling out on it piece by piece, even though not much was known as time went on, it was at least assumed that development would really pick up after Lost concluded in 2010 and Lindelof would have his hands free to work on the multiple scripts that would be required. Abrams was expected to possibly co-write the movies and direct all of them, something that would certainly take up much of his time, and for somebody who has multiple projects on his plate, including the sequel to his Summer hit Star Trek, and he has a tall order. But now it seems as if he won’t have to worry about that. Read the full story

With his successful relaunch of the Star Trek franchise back in May, everyone wants to know what J.J. Abrams will do next. At a press conference to commemorate the upcoming DVD/Blu-ray release of Star Trek, Abrams was questioned on that very topic. He seemed reserved on the subject, yet was willing to share his excitement of continuing his alternative Star Trek universe. Although some fans of the original series may be disappointed by this, Abrams is shooting to allure the general public (which proved to be successful with his first Star Trek release).

Being a science fiction film, many simply expect the Star Trek sequel to be shot in 3-D. Abrams stated that he stayed away from it with the first Star Trek because it was only his second feature film, and the technology was so new. However, upon seeing and being amazed by the preview footage from James Cameron’s, “Avatar,”  Abrams has definitely been researching the technology more and considering it for the  sequel.

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Variety is reporting today that J.J. Abrams next Mission Impossible film is currently recruiting a new writing team. The new crew consist of Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec. If you don’t know the names you definitely know the work. The two are yet another set of writers to make a the transition from Abrams TV division to feature film. They worked on Abram’s produced series ALIAS for 4 seasons. They will be adapting a screenplay for the story Abrams has written. This could be a sign that Abrams is trying to separate (or at least work with others) from the writing team of  Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci who worked with Abrams in his last 2 film that he directed (Mission Impossible 3 and Star Trek) It was also reported that Tom Cruise’s (who is also serving producer) character Ethan Hunt will have an on screen role in the film. No word yet has been released about a director. The film is slated for a 2011 release.

I am happy to see that things are moving along on the new Mission Impossible film. I really hope that Abrams decides to return as director but since Paramount will probably want to move with a Star Trek sequel first that seem unlikely. Only time will tell as to what will happen with the latest adventure for Ethan Hunt but if the third one was any indication then we are in for a ride.

Are you looking forward to a fourth Mission Impossible?