Tom Cruise and longtime producing partner Paula Wagner, 15 months after being publicly bounced from Paramount, have a line of high-end films ready to roll as they attempt to rejuvenate the United Artists studio. A hit would solidify the pair's rebuilding effort, Business Week reports, and first up is Cruise vehicle "Lions for Lambs," a political flick.
Planning to make six films a year, Cruise and Wagner have so far proved themselves avid fund-raisers, securing 15 institutional investors and $500 million in financing through Merrill Lynch. "The concept is that this is an artist-driven studio," Wagner said. Though MGM will distribute all UA films, Cruise and Wagner intend to run it like a smaller, independent studio. (More Tom Cruise stories.)