Cruise in United Artists comeback

Tom Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner have been put in charge of United Artists, a film studio formed by Hollywood actors including Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford.

Wagner will serve as chief executive of the company, owned by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Cruise will appear in UA films, but will also be allowed to star in films from rival studios, MGM announced today.

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, blamed Cruise’s public antics for hurting the box office performance of Mission:Impossible III.

Cruise/Wagner Productions said then that it had secured financing from two unidentified hedge funds to back future projects.

MGM said today that Cruise and Wagner have taken an ownership interest in UA, but did not specify financial terms.

The pair will have full control of the production schedule, which is expected to be four films a year, MGM said.

Cruise’s last appearance in a UA film was in Rain Man in 1988, which won four Academy Awards including Best Picture.

United Artists was founded in 1919 by Chaplin, Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and DW Griffith. The studio operated as an artist-centred company for decades, churning out such hits as Some Like it Hot and a string of James Bond films, starting with 1962’s Dr No.

In 1967 the company was sold to Transamerica, which owned it until 1981 when it was bought by MGM. In 1980, the studio released one of the most notorious flops in movie history, Heaven’s Gate.

In 2004, MGM was bought by a consortium that includes Sony, Comcast and private equity companies Providence Equity Partners, Texas Pacific Group and DLJ Merchant Banking Partners.