Save Tom Cruise
Redemption in Hollywood can be pretty quick. Tom Cruise gets the boot from Sumner Redstone, and then the next day he’s controlling United Artists. I guess this will continue the lauded tradition of the inmates running the asylum.
MCN Press Release: Cruise + Wagner + Sloan = New UA
Will this mean a revival of fortune for Tom Cruise and his producing partner and now UA CEO Paula Wagner? Will this mean a revival of fortune for the troubled UA which once boasted 3 best pictures in a row and now is a shell of a company? Hard to see this as anything other than MGM trying to generate some cash for its shareholders, but out of this might come some interesting movies. After all Cruise/Wagner did bring us Shattered Glass and The Others. And Cruise can clearly mature into roles that have weight but don’t sacrifice his well-honed image (Magnolia, Born on the Fourth of July). Now that Cruise is the underdog, I’d like to see how he becomes top gun again.
Save Me (mp3) - Aimee Mann Buy
November 8th, 2006 at 4:55 am
Have you read “Final Cut,” the book about the making of “Heaven’s Gate”? It contains a good history of United Artists up through 1981. I’d also like to read an analysis of John Calley’s brief resuscitation of the company (although it was fully owned by MGM by that point) in the mid-’90s with movies like “GoldenEye,” the first Bond movie since ‘89, and “The Birdcage.” UA also put out “Showgirls,” but nobody’s perfect. And some people think it’s a camp masterpiece now.
November 9th, 2006 at 10:52 pm
I know a guy who was at UA and got out just before Heaven’s Gate, thus avoiding the calamity.