Paramount have found the IMF agent they were looking for: Jeremy Renner will star opposite Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible 4.

Renner, whose inbox has been flooded with big projects after his blistering turn in Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, is all set to join the series and give it some fresh new blood. That's what the studio wanted - someone to take over the franchise should Ethan Hunt and Cruise become too old to jump off motorbikes and rappel down buildings and other impossible stuff.

After looking at folks like Chris Pine and Anthony Mackie, they went for Mackie's co-star. Renner will be joining the M:I-4 cast, which will most likely include Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg, with director Brad Bird aiming for a release in December 2011. Which all sounds, you know, quite possible really.