Tom Cruise Announces ‘Mission Impossible’ Name: ‘Ghost Protocol’

This week is definitely the week when big franchises announce official names of upcoming installments. Tom Cruise has just confirmed the official name for the next “Mission Impossible” film: “Ghost Protocol.”

Tom has been working on the upcoming film as early as September, when he was spotted for the first time in character in Prague, shooting a scene in disguise.

In a recent press conference, the actor spoke a bit about why he had agreed to do a fourth film and, at the same time, revealed the official name for it, as ScreenCrave confirms.

“Today, Tom Cruise and Paramount have unveiled the title of the next Mission Impossible. The fourth installment in the series will be called Ghost Protocol. Let that simmer for a bit,” the e-zine says.

The decision to call this next installment something else than “MI4” was prompted by the fact that Tom and the crew behind the production would like it to stand apart from the previous films in the series.

“Cruise appeared in front of a packed house filled with journalists at a press conference in Dubai on Thursday where he announced the Ghost Protocol title,” ScreenCrave says.

“The actor stated that he didn’t want this movie to follow in the footsteps of the previous films with the same generic name of MI: 2 or MI:3,” the e-zine mentions.

As Cruise explained, calling the “Mission: Impossible” films anything other than a mere number was what he always wanted but, for some reason or another, he couldn’t see it done until now.

“One of the things that I always wanted with the franchise was for it to not have a number afterwards, because I haven’t made sequels of films, and I never really thought of these films as sequels,” the actor said.

As also noted above, this is not the only big movie franchise to grab the headlines these days, since just yesterday, “Batman 3” got the official treatment, as we also informed you.

It will be called “The Dark Knight Rises,” director Chris Nolan himself said.

“Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol” is set for theatrical release in December 2011, so, until then, make sure you keep an eye on this space for more details.