J.J. Abrams Directing Mission: Impossible 3

Paramount Pictures and Cruise/Wagner Productions made it official today that J.J. Abrams will direct Mission: Impossible 3, starring Tom Cruise, Ving Rhames, Carrie-Anne Moss, Kenneth Branagh, and Scarlett Johansson.

Abrams, the screenwriter of Armageddon, is also the creator of Alias and Felicity as well as a writer on the new television series Lost. Having directed all three of those series, Abrams makes his major motion picture directorial debut with the third installment of "Mission: Impossible."

Previously being prepped in Berlin, the film is now set to begin shooting in the summer of 2005.

Cruise will first team up with director Steven Spielberg on The War of the Worlds, which starts filming this November. The 2005 release is a Paramount and DreamWorks production.

Based on H.G. Wells' legendary science fiction classic, "The War of the Worlds" (published in 1898), the film is a modern day version of what many critics agree is the definitive model for alien invasion stories.