EXCLUSIVE: After directing Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher, Christopher McQuarrie is poised to take on the next installment of Cruise’s signature tentpole. I’m told that McQuarrie is the choice to helm the fifth Mission: Impossible film that is in the early stages of being put together by Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions. They will hire writers before making it official, but he’s the guy that Cruise and JJ Abrams want.

M:I-5 is a big priority for the studio after the Brad Bird-directed Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol grossed just under $700 million worldwide. McQuarrie, who won the Oscar for scripting The Usual Suspects, has more recently become Cruise’s go-to guy as a writer. After collaborating with Cruise on Valkyrie, McQuarrie has had a credited or uncredited hand in most of Cruise’s recent films including All You Need Is Kill, Ghost Protocol (uncredited), and the Top Gun 2 film which is in limbo after the death of director Tony Scott. Paramount and Skydance also have McQuarrie developing to direct Without Remorse, the action thriller based on the Tom Clancy novel.

The Mission: Impossible opportunity comes off the excitement that Paramount and Skydance are experiencing over Jack Reacher, which McQuarrie directed after adapting the script from the Lee Child novel One Shot. Cruise plays the title character, who in the books is a hulking former military cop who drifts around the country and always ends up unraveling conspiracies with his intellect and oversized fists. While Cruise doesn’t match Reacher’s size, the author was the one who felt most strongly that Cruise was the right guy for the job. After seeing Cruise’s work playing killers in Ghost Protocol and Michael Mann’s Collateral, I don’t doubt Child’s judgment. Paramount and Skydance are hoping it leads to another franchise. The film opens December 21. McQuarrie’s repped by CAA, Key Creatives and attorney David Fox.

EXCLUSIVE: Ethan Hunt has accepted another mission. Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions have set Tom Cruise in a deal to star in and produce a fifth installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise. Both Paramount and Skydance have confirmed this, but they are not saying who’s writing and directing, or when they are targeting release. I’ve heard all along that the director will be Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise’s frequent collaborator who most recently wrote and directed Jack Reacher, the adaptation of the Lee Child novels that starred Cruise. The writer/director will be finalized shortly, and that person will develop the next installment with Cruise and JJ Abrams‘ Bad Robot. Abrams directed the third film in the series and he and Cruise reignited the franchise by hatching the Brad Bird-directed Mission: Impossible–Ghost Protocol, a film that added Jeremy Renner to the mix and saw Cruise sky-walking across the exterior glass 124 floors up on a skyscraper in Dubai. That film had a $145 million budget and a worldwide gross of nearly $700 million, the most a Cruise film has ever done.

Warner Bros. is remaking the Cold War thriller Ice Station Zebra and has tapped Christopher McQuarrie to write and direct it.

Made in 1968 by MGM, Zebra was an adaptation of an Alistair McLean novel that centered on an American Naval submarine team that races the Russians to retrieve sensitive photographic material in the Arctic.

Torpedo blasts, saboteurs, double-crosses and double-agent civilian scientists caught in the cross-fire are part of the ensuing action.

The movie starred Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, Patrick McGoohan and Jim Brown and proved to be a major hit at the time.

McQuarrie is well-steeped in the world of shady characters having won an Oscar for penning The Usual Suspects and written thrillers like the Tom Cruise-starring Valkyrie and Jack Reacher.

The deal may impact the development of Paramount's Mission: Impossible 5, which McQuarrie is rumored to be the favorite to direct. Cruise is back to star in the action tentpole but there is no clear timetable for either movie project.