Director Christopher McQuarrie (Jack Reacher) and star Tom Cruise (Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) have set a dubious task for themselves: to reclaim the box office from Star Wars: Episode VII when their upcoming film Mission: Impossible 5 opens a week later. Paramount has set a release date of Christmas Day, 2015 for the spy thriller. Cruise will return to the fifth installment of the series to play Ethan Hunt; Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton and Simon Pegg are rumored to return but no official announcements have been made. Scripted by Drew Pearce (Iron Man 3), Mission: Impossible 5 reunites the director/star team-up of McQuarrie and Cruise from the surprise worldwide hit, Jack Reacher. Hit the jump for more.

The Wrap was first to report that M:I5 will be hitting theaters on Christmas Day, 2015. It was recently reported that Disney’s new Star Wars installment, directed by J.J. Abrams (Star Trek) would be opening on December 18, 2015, giving the McQuarrie-Cruise actioner quite the box office obstacle to overcome. Then again, it might not be such an impossibility, since Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol also opened in December and went on to make north of $700 million. Production on the fifth film is scheduled to start in London this coming February. While there’s no official word on his involvement just yet, Pegg did say he’d like to carve out some room in his schedule to work on the sequel. With a release date set and a production start looming, check back here for the latest casting and plot news, which should be coming our way within the next few months. Be sure to let us know what you think M:I5’s chances are of beating Star Wars: Episode VII at the box office during the 2015 holidays.