As Hollywood ponders over the state of filmmaking in this post-Avatar world, it seems like it could be a watershed moment for, arguably, its biggest star of the last few decades. Yes, Tom Cruise, following an underwhelming box office performance for his latest film, Knight & Day, looks set to return to his reliable cash cow, the Mission: Impossible series.

Paramount has confirmed that it will be putting together a fourth film in the franchise with studio vice chairman Rob Moore stating yesterday: "We absolutely are excited about having Tom Cruise star in this movie."

However, Paramount are reported to be keeping a close eye on the overseas performance of Knight & Day in order to gauge whether it is their diminutive leading man's star that is waning or an uninspiring marketing campaign that led to a poor showing at the US box office. Rumour has it that the Cruiser needs his action-comedy, co-starring Cameron Diaz, to rake in at least $200 million abroad or else Paramount could look elsewhere to cast Ethan Hunt.