According to the Los Angeles Times (27 February), Tom Cruise and longtime business partner Paula Wagner have raised nearly all of the $500m required to rebirth United Artists (UA). The dormant studio was founded by the mega stars of the Silent Era of cinema some 86 years ago, namely Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and director Douglas Fairbanks.
Cruise and Wagner own 35% of UA, with the remainder held by MGM. The $500m needed to finance a slate of films, the first project being the Cruise/Meryl Streep starrer “Lions for Lambs’, is reportedly coming from Wall Street investors. “Lions for Lambs’ is a political drama to be directed by Robert Redford with a small budget of $35m.
