Tom Cruise to resurect and run United Artists

By: Karl Schneider
Date: Friday, November 03, 2006
Source: Various

Tom Cruise and MGM will give new life to United Artists in a pact that places Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner in the leadership roles.

Cruise and Wagner have taken a substantial minority financial stake in United Artists and will be responsible for setting the company's production slate.  The duo also have greenlight authority within an undisclosed range which the trades suggest is around $50 to $60 million.

Wagner will serve as the studio's CEO while Cruise will star and produce films for the studio.  The deal will not restrict Cruise from teaming with other studio's.

The studio is expected to produce about four films a year, with MGM handling the worldwide marketing and distribution for all films.  Each film will be fully financed by MGM and its partners.

"We're going to fund it to begin with, but we want to create a scenario where UA stands on its own, with its own credit lines, (its) own investors, so that it can grow into a studio that can produce more than four movies a year," MGM chairman and CEO Harry Sloan said.

"We intend to make similar pictures to those we've done at C/W, but now we have the opportunity to broaden our base, to make more pictures and to continue to make pictures that appeal to broad audiences," Wagner said. "We'll be making high-concept films, character-driven films, a wide-range of films."

The duo's development and overhead deal with investment firm First and Goal, headed by Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder remains separate from UA and will be used for any independently produced C/W projects.

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