Pop your Scientology tents, Tom's coming to town

Get your squirt guns ready, folks. Everyone's favorite crazy man Tom Cruise will bring his freak show to Shanghai this November to film the "climactic final scenes" of Mission: Impossible III, according to Variety.com:

While it is an open secret in China that the pic and star Tom Cruise will be in town, attempts to confirm this on the record have met with regular denials. Chinese insiders say the wall of silence can be maintained because the pic does not appear to be partnering with a local studio.

The denials may also be explained by hesitation over the spectacular nature of the planned scenes.

"I know that they've had issues about a helicopter, but I simply cannot believe that the Shanghai authorities will not move mountains to make sure that this film happens on their turf," said a China-based production executive.

Variety says Cruise and his cronies will be in Shanghai for about a month, spending $10 million of the movie's $150 million budget in China, where lots of pre-production work will also take place. No word on whether contract-bride Katie Holmes will join Cruise in China. But, call it a hunch, Shanghaiist is pretty certain Brooke Shields will not.

Mission: Impossible III, currently filming in Italy, stars Cruise, Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Monaghan, Maggie Q, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Shanghaiist fave Philip Seymour Hoffman and, yes, Keri Russell. Keri Russell! Who cares about Tom Cruise? Felicity is coming to Shanghai! (Unless her character's dead before the climactic final scenes.) J.J. Abrams -- executive producer of Alias and Felicity, among other TV shows -- will make his big screen directorial debut with the movie. No word on the sountrack yet, but we can't help but wonder if Rob Thomas will appear on it, he and Cruise having worked together before and all.

Mission: Impossible III will open in the summer of 2006. Until then, you can occupy yourself with this rather amusing video of Tom Cruise killing Oprah, or this mildly amusing animated cartoon that makes fun of Cruise and Katie. Or you could read this story about the strange life of the man who dreamt up Scientology.

(Thanks to Shanghaiist reader Jason for the tip!)

Photo of Tom Cruise on The Today Show from The Australian.