LOS ANGELES – Tom Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner have been put in charge of United Artists, a film studio that was formed nearly 90 years ago by Hollywood actors including Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford.
Wagner will serve as chief executive of the company, which is owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. Cruise will appear in UA films, but also will be allowed to star in films from rival studios, MGM announced Thursday.
The development is a major comeback for Cruise and Wagner. They were unceremoniously dumped in August from their 14-year producing deal at Paramount Studios after Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount parent company Viacom Inc., blamed Cruise’s public antics for hurting the box-office performance of “Mission: Impossible III.”
MGM said Thursday that Cruise and Wagner have taken an ownership interest in UA but did not specify financial terms.
Cruise and Wagner will have full control of the production slate, which is expected to be four films a year, MGM said.
“There is a complete alignment of interests in this deal,” MGM chief operating officer Rick Sands said Thursday. “They are equity owners in the company and they share with us in the upside.”
Two weeks after being cut loose by Paramount, Cruise/Wagner Productions signed a two-year financing deal with an investment partnership headed by Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder.
That deal with First &Goal LLC covers overhead and development for films produced by Cruise and Wagner, but it is not part of Thursday’s deal, Sands said.
United Artists has been virtually mothballed for several years, although the studio’s logo will appear on the latest James Bond film, “Casino Royale,” due out in two weeks.
Most recently, UA had been used to acquire or produce low-budget independent films.
But under Cruise and Wagner, the studio is free to make $100 million action films starring Cruise, as well as lower budget fare, MGM said.
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