THE 'IMPOSSIBLE' DREAM J.J. ABRAMS REVITALIZES THE TOM CRUISE ACTION FRANCHISE WITH A PERSONAL TOUCH.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

They couldn't keep a director. They went through numerous high-profile leading ladies. There was a serious preproduction accident. And, of course, the star kept making a spectacle of himself.

But however tortured ``Mission: Impossible III's'' journey to creation may have been, ``Lost'' and ``Alias'' creator J.J. Abrams could not have had a better time directing his first movie.

``It felt like the dream job I've always wanted to do,'' says the 39-year-old TV phenomenon, who began his career writing screenplays for such films as ``Regarding Henry'' and ``Forever Young.'' ``I guess the stages going into this were incremental, so it never felt daunting to me. I felt on solid ground all the time.''

That ground was in Italy, Berlin and Shanghai, as the third installment in Tom Cruise's espionage franchise spared no expense on locations and spectacular action sequences. (Informed that ``M:I III'' is reported to be the most expensive first film anyone's ever directed, Abrams cracks, ``I'm just so happy no one told me that when we were shooting; I would've stayed in my trailer.'')

Abrams won the coveted assignment, after David Fincher (``Se7en'') and Cruise protege Joe Carnahan (``Narc'') left the project, with an idea to focus portions of the highoctane picture on something previous films in the series ignored: Impossible Missions Force leader Ethan Hunt's personal life.

``Listening to J.J. talk about the characters, talk about story, talk about structuring a screenplay; he hit every right note,'' explains Paula Wagner, who produced the movie with Cruise. ``Tom said, 'He understands what ``Mission: Impossible'' is and respects that, what people want to see and what makes it fun. And he also wants to bring something fresh to it, and we like that.' ''

``Tom asked, 'What do you want to do?' '' Abrams recalls. ``I said I wanted it to be a more personal story that, yeah, had action, but a movie that was more of a story and more emotional than what they had. He said, 'Well then, let's do that!' ''

So Abrams and his ``Alias'' writing team of Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci came up with a scenario in which Cruise's Hunt gets engaged to a woman, Julia (Michelle Monaghan), who knows nothing about his undercover life. A botched mission puts him in conflict with ruthless weapons merchant Owen Davian (``Capote'' Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman), who strikes at Hunt's most vulnerable point: Julia.

If Abrams felt any vulnerability about making his first feature with a producer who is also the biggest star in Hollywood, Cruise quickly put him at ease.

``From the beginning, Tom said, 'I want this to be J.J.'s ``Mission: Impossible,'' I'm your actor,' '' Abrams reports. ``He let me direct the movie how I saw fit. But he was the greatest collaborator, helped make it better every day in ways that I probably can but also probably can't quantify.''

Which is roughly what you hear from just about everyone who's ever worked with Tom Cruise, despite the impression much of the public has of him as a controlling, sometimes out- of-control egomaniac.

``The absolute truth is, this guy gave me the chance of a lifetime to do this movie,'' Abrams acknowledges. ``Even if there had been ugly experiences along the way, I probably would have been so grateful just for him having done that that I wouldn't reveal any of them. But you can get anyone who worked on this movie as drunk as can be and ask them, 'What was the worst day?' and I can't imagine anyone finding a story.''

Before ``M:I III'' went into production last summer, Cruise was stirring up controversy with his attacks on psychiatric drugs and over-enthusiastic courtship of Katie Holmes. There is still some concern that his antics may have turned off some of the star's massive fan base. But it never bothered Abrams.

``My experience of Tom was so focused on the work that it was always bizarre to me that any noise I heard outside was occurring at all,'' the director says. ``And what you realize is while, certainly, like anyone, Tom has his points of view on things and has had now-famous interviews that have been publicized like crazy, you realize how much that is said and written about him is just fabrication. Not to say that there aren't some things that, like with anyone, you can point to. But there's not a harder-working, more focused and goodhearted guy in the world. That's all I care about, and he ended up being a friend.''

Cruise did drive Abrams crazy, though - by insisting on doing most of Hunt's lifethreatening stunts himself.

``There were a lot of moments when I thought, 'This is moronic - what the hell are we thinking?' '' the filmmaker recalls. ``He did so many stunts in the movie, it's just nuts. When that truck jack-knifes and goes over him, that was really uncomfortable for me. Yes, it was as safe as it could be, given the fact that a truck was driving over Tom. But it was dumb! Did we have to do that?''

Abrams isn't at all jaunty about a test stunt that resulted in a severely burned stuntman. Steven Scott Wheatley is now suing Paramount Pictures and Cruise-Wagner Productions for negligence. Abrams was not present at the time of the accident.

``I never met this gentleman,'' the director says. ``I guess they were doing a test of something before we started shooting, and we had gotten a call that there had been an accident. I wouldn't know enough about the details, but obviously it's a horrible thing.''

Abrams adds that, though it may appear otherwise, he was not spread too thin during the ``M:I III'' production. Others run the day-to-day operations of ``Lost'' and ``Alias,'' and he had little to do with his company's newest series, ``What About Brian?'' < ``I read the scripts, and I get early cuts, so I'm on top of what's going on in those shows,'' he explains. ``But the thing about doing a movie like this, obviously, is that it's so all-encompassing. It's really hard to focus much on outside stuff while you're directing it.''

Abrams started learning the fundamentals of production at an early age. His father, Gerald, is a prolific producer of made-for-TV movies.

``They were more family drama, movies of the week that my dad would do,'' says the son, whose personal tastes leaned more to disaster films and action blockbusters - and crafty TV thrillers like the original ``Mission: Impossible'' series. ``But it was access to filmmaking. I could get on sets, ask questions of anyone and, I'm sure, be a total pain in the ass as a kid. My father had an office at Paramount - I'd go watch them rehearse sitcoms on the lot. That kind of access is the most invaluable, I think, because you just kind of absorb the process.''

Now there are reports that Abrams has been tapped to revitalize Paramount's other most valuable TV-to-movie franchise, ``Star Trek.''

Fixing that overmined series will be quite a trick. But then, anyone who's tried to keep up with ``Alias'' or make sense of ``Lost'' knows that Abrams is the man for these kinds of missions.

``I love magic, and at the end of the day, it's like a magic trick,'' Abrams says of his best work, even citing how his first TV hit, ``Felicity,'' faked Culver City for New York. ``It literally is misdirection, that weird, tingly pleasure of doing a payoff that maximizes the surprise. Whether it's 'Lost' or 'Alias,' I've loved any time we've made people believe we were doing something that we weren't doing. So 'Mission: Impossible' was the dream project for me.''

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

What came before

Here's a quick rehash of the first two ``Mission: Impossible'' films.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE (1996)

Director: Brian De Palma

IMF boss: Jon Voight

The babe: Emmanuelle Beart

The ridiculous stunts: Cruise entirely suspended from wires as Ethan Hunt steals crucial thingamajig from high-tech vault; Cruise trying to enter speeding English Chunnel train, in the Chunnel.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE II (2000)

Director: John Woo

IMF boss: Anthony Hopkins

The babe: Thandie Newton

The ridiculous stunts: Cruise freestyle rock-climbing desert mesa for no apparent reason other than to show that he can; hair-raising motorcycle chase, with traffic; shootout at high-tech island stronghold, with - for no apparent reason - doves.

-B.S.

Meet Michelle Monaghan

Hometown: Winthrop, Iowa (population 700)

Previously seen in: ``Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,'' ``North Country,'' ``Mr. & Mrs. Smith,'' ``The Bourne Supremacy,'' ``Boston Public.''

Role in ``M:I III'': Ethan Hunt's new wife, Julia, who doesn't know he's a secret agent. She learns a few things after the bad guy kidnaps her.

The distressing part of not being a damsel in distress: ``J.J. Abrams writes really strong female characters. Julia's not just a victim. I appreciated that, but doing the stunts was a real challenge for me. I realized I took for granted all the stunts Tom does; he makes it look so easy.''

On kissing Tom Cruise: ``Not a bad day at the office. It's unbelievable to me that I'm talking about kissing Tom Cruise.''

What's next: `` 'Gone Baby Gone' starts shooting this month in Boston. Ben Affleck is directing and adapted the screenplay (from a novel by Dennis Lehane, who wrote 'Mystic River'). I'm a private investigator who gets caught up in this abduction case that brings up a lot of moral and ethical issues.''

Good run so far. Any downside to it?: ``No. Not yet. Call me in 10 years. This is definitely a moment to enjoy. Who knows how long it'll last, so I'm enjoying it now.''

-B.S.

Abrams on `Alias,' Lost

Talk about an impossible mission: Try to get ``M:I III's'' director, J.J. Abrams, to reveal season climax specifics from his two ultra-complicated TV shows, ``Alias'' and ``Lost.''

``I think it's a pretty great ending,'' he says of the Jennifer Garner superspy series, which completes its five-season run this month.

``The last episodes are for the fans of the show. We're not trying to bring in new viewers, we're not trolling for better ratings. ABC has been gracious enough to let us complete the series as it should be completed. Certainly, the very last episode is going to be really satisfying and very much what the show is and has been. It wraps things up really well.''

As for ``Lost,'' ``It's probably futile to ask what the hell is going on,'' Abrams says. ``But that's not to say that there aren't answers and that those aren't coming, a number of which are going to be coming this season.

``It is a show that, for me, has always been more about the journey than the answers. I can tell you that there is not going to be The One Answer, that you go, 'Oh, I get it!' There will ultimately be satisfying conclusions to the various stories that are there. But the idea that it is a single, 'Sixth Sense'-type ending, I don't think, would apply to the show.''

- B.S.

CAPTION(S):

7 photos, 3 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) `MISSION' ACCOMPLISHED

Tom Cruise espionage franchise travels in a different direction

(2) IMF agent Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) escapes a deadly explosion in ``Mission: Impossible III.''

(3) no caption (movie scene)

(4) Philip Seymour Hoffman plays the elusive and deadly Owen Davian in ``Mission: Impossible III.''

(5) Ethan Hunt (Cruise) rescues IMF agent Lindsey Farris (Keri Russell) in the third episode.

(6) no caption (Michelle Monaghan)

(7) Director J.J. Abrams

Box:

(1) What came before (see text)

(2) Meet Michelle Monaghan (see text)

(3) Abrams on `Alias,' `Lost' (see text)