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Reagen Sulewski: It's pretty clear that he's lost some portion of his audience pretty much forever, but a lot of other people are still with him (kind of like Michael Jackson, but without all the... ickiness). Mission Impossible IV will almost certainly work, but that's kind of a cold comfort - making sequel after sequel can't be the way he wants to run out the clock on his stardom, and eventually those franchises run out (Days of Thunder II!).

Add me to the group that thinks the Les Grossman movie idea makes no sense, although there's a slight, slight chance it could work artistically if not financially. I'd do it mockumentary style as a sort of "rise to power" film, but were' still looking at niche film at best.

Michael Lynderey: I was never a big believer in the storyline that Cruise has been faltering in the last four years. Minority Report, The Last Samurai, and Collateral, all pre-2005, weren't considered particularly great performers, while War of the Worlds ended up his highest grossing film, and that was released right after whatever events in his personal life people keep referring to. As for after 2006 - Valkyrie did pretty well for what it was, Lions for Lambs was hardly a typical Cruise vehicle, and so it's only Mission: Impossible III that I'd peg as a definite underperfomer. That, however, has now changed - Knight and Day really didn't do very well at all, did it? Maybe it's because this same basic storyline has been played out in so many bad movies lately, or maybe it got caught in the wave of massively underperforming action movies that's been hitting theaters this summer. Or maybe people are right about Cruise's status as draw. Oh, well. Either way, I have to imagine there's going to be some tinkering done with Mission: Impossible IV - and I don't mean just the addition of 3D or smell-a-vision - but they're probably going to try and get a real name co-star, or two.

David Mumpower: I think Michael introduces a fascinating thought to this conversation. What type of villain could be added to the cast who would provide the requisite drawing power to make Mission: Impossible IV a premiere movie event? I mean, they brought in one of the best actors of our generation, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and he delivered a sublime performance in Mission: Impossible III that meant absolutely nothing to the bottom line. What's the corollary to that? Mike Myers? Jim Carrey? Robert Pattinson+Taylor Lautner+Zac Efron? I'm not seeing any obvious solutions here.

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