Up-and-coming actress Paula Patton has landed a major role. The 34-year-old stunner is set to star opposite Tom Cruise in the upcoming blockbuster Mission: Impossible 4.

Deadline reports that the actress, who has previously appeared in the Outkast musical Idlewild, the thriller Mirrors and the critically acclaimed Precious, screen-tested for the role along with Lauren German and Kristen Kreuk before landing the part.

Patton will star as a young operative working alongside Cruise’s spymaster Ethan Hunt. She’ll join The Hurt Locker’s Jeremy Renner as a newcomer on the cast, in a flick intended to launch a new series of M:I films that will carry on without Cruise.

Deadline also reports that M:I4 won’t actually be called Mission: Impossible 4, though no new title has been announced just yet.

Brad Bird, the Pixar animation director behind such classics as The Incredibles and Ratatouille is making his live-action directing debut on the $140 million picture.

The three previous M:I films, based on the 1960s television series of the same name, have grossed over $1.4 billion at the box office. Shooting on M:I4 – or whatever it’s going to be called – is set to begin this fall.

(Photo by PR Photos)

Story provided by the Dish Information Corporation