LOS ANGELES – Brad Bird is set to direct Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible IV," which is eyeing a release date in December 2011.

Late last week, British magazine Empire quoted Cruise as saying: "We're working with Brad right now. I don't know if I'm allowed to talk about it but everything's signed ... Brad is doing it."

The previous film in the Paramount Pictures action franchise, released in 2006, was directed by J.J. Abrams. He will produce the new one with Cruise. Plot details are being kept secret.

"Mission: Impossible IV" would mark the live-action debut for Bird, whose credits include the animated movies "The Incredibles" and "The Iron Giant." His prolonged efforts to develop "1906," set around the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, are rumored to be stalled because of budgetary reasons.