Cruise: Star Turned Studio Mogul

0

In Hollywood, there’s redemption, and then there’s redemption. For most folks who make or star in films, redemption is having a hit after a real stinker,when, say, Jim Carrey actually makes another movie that someone other than his immediate family wants to see. The other type of redemption is the kind that superstar Tom Cruise and his longtime producing partner Paula Wagner hope to enjoy soon, BusinessWeek.com reports.


On Nov. 9, Lions for Lambs, a political flick starring Cruise, hits theaters. It’s the first in an expected long line of films produced by the duo through United Artists, the company they jointly own with MGM.


Will it be a hit? Who knows. The gods of Hollywood can be cruel. But the fact that Cruise and Wagner are in business making films again speaks volumes about human determination, the power of an A-list superstar, and, well, mountains of money. You may recall that 15 months back the two were bounced from Paramount Pictures, where they had made films for more than a decade. Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount’s Viacom (VIA) parent, even threw some less than generous words Cruise’s way. There was talk about Cruise’s quirky behavior at the time, and the very clear intimation from Redstone that the actor’s antics were costing his company money.


Well, Cruise and Wagner are back. And while Wagner is clear that she’s “not looking backward,” she seems eager to show the world that she and Cruise can not only make flicks for a studio but run one themselves. In their case, it’s the venerable,if all-but-comatose,United Artists (UA) studio, which the duo agreed last November to run for its longtime owner MGM.



Read the full BusinessWeek.com story

.

No posts to display