Production efforts on Mission: Impossible 3 have been halted until next year, allowing Tom Cruise to reteam with Steven Spielberg in the upcoming War of the Worlds.

Berlin-based Studio Babelsburg said production on M:I-3 would not begin at the end of August as planned but in the summer of 2005. The film will be helmed by its newest addition of Jeffrey 'JJ' Abrams, creator of television’s Alias in his feature directorial debut.

Paramount Pictures has faced increased hardship in the creation of M:I-3; the company had already shifted the film’s 2005 release to June 29 from May 6. Since its inception, the film has been plagued with a revolving-door production crew. David Fincer, the original choice for M:I-3’s director dropped out in favor of directing Lords of Dogtown, a skateboarding movie project he has since left. He was replaced with Joe Carnahan, who is said to have quit because of 'creative differences,' according to studio reps. A series of writers have also come and gone from the project.

The Mission Impossible franchise of films has been highly lucrative for Paramount. The first movie in the series, directed by Brian de Palma in 1996, grossed $454 million worldwide, and its John Woo-directed sequel claimed $546 million with its 2000 release.

Based on the hit TV show from the 1960s and 70s, the latest installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise will see Cruise reprise his role as secret agent Ethan Hunt. M:I-3, co-stars Kenneth Branagh and Scarlett Johansson and an estimated production budget of $150 million.

War will reunite Spielberg and Cruise, who worked together on Minority Report and will be a co-production with Spielberg's DreamWorks studio. The film is a contemporized adaptation of the H.G. Wells sci-fi novel about a Martian invasion of Earth and will replace M:I-3 as Paramount's big summer hopeful next year. The film which has been in development for some time, will begin filming in November. It's exact release date has not yet been decided.

The upcoming blockbusters required stars and crew to coordinate incredibly hectic schedules amid other production efforts. Cruise wanted Abrams for the M:I-3 project, but he was locked into contractual obligations with ABC that prevented him from tackling the assignment until next year. About the same time, Spielberg postponed work on a drama about the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics and was, therefore, available to begin work on War.

'These things don't usually happen with a happy ending,' Paramount Motion Picture Group chairman Sherry Lansing said.

'The script for War is nothing short of brilliant, and this way Tom will finish War first and get his No. 1 choice for M:I-3...We have two major tentpole projects. It all came out better than anyone could have imagined.'