Paula Wagner

November 2007

United Artists (UA) was
founded in 1919 by Hollywood legends Douglas Fairbanks, Charlie Chaplin, Mary
Pickford and D. W. Griffith. Their aim was to encourage and support directors,
writers, actors and producers and allow them to pursue their vision.

Today, the studio that
gave us the Rocky, Pink
Panther and James Bond franchises has been revitalized. It is run by two
of the best-known figures in Hollywood, Paula Wagner and Tom Cruise, who have
worked their entire careers in the traditional studio system, but wanted to
fashion the “new” UA on the same principles as the original founders, by
nurturing creative talent and producing great movies that audiences of all ages
will love.

Wagner has experienced the
moviemaking business from a variety of perspectives. She started her career as
an actress, was then signed on as an agent at the talent management company
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and later became one of Hollywood’s most
successful producers when she and her partner, Tom Cruise, set up Cruise/Wagner
Productions in 1993 within Paramount Pictures. Wagner oversaw more than a dozen
films, including the Mission: Impossible franchise, War of the Worlds, The Last Samurai and
Vanilla Sky.

Wagner and Cruise’s
association with Paramount came to an end last year when Sumner Redstone, the
controlling shareholder of Viacom, Paramount’s owner, very abruptly and
publicly fired Cruise for what Redstone considered “inappropriate” behavior on
the talk-show circuit and during the promotional tour for Mission:
Impossible III. Wagner and Cruise
talked of setting up their own production company, when Harry E. Sloan, the
chairman and CEO of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM), which owns UA, came
calling.

Sloan heads a studio that
is controlled by private-equity firms, including Providence Equity Partners and
Texas Pacific Group, along with Comcast Corporation and Sony Corporation of
America. Under its new ownership, MGM concentrated on producing and
distributing movies based on existing franchises. Sloan’s mandate was to
improve MGM’s channels around the world, but he also wanted to revive the
studio’s filmmaking capabilities without the prohibitive costs of numerous
layers of creative executives and producers. So when Wagner and Cruise became
available, Sloan saw a huge opportunity. He made Wagner and Cruise partners in
UA; Wagner is the CEO. Cruise will produce and star in films for UA, but will
also be free to appear in movies made by other studios.

UA is a major supplier of
feature films to MGM, with all development, production, marketing and
distribution costs covered by MGM. The first movie, Lions for Lambs, directed by Robert Redford and starring Cruise,
Redford and Meryl Streep, will be released this month.

When the “new” United
Artists was announced a year ago, Sloan said, “Partnering with Tom Cruise and
Paula Wagner, we have the ideal creative foundation from which to reintroduce
the United Artists brand. Tom and Paula are the modern versions of the iconic
founders of United Artists, and our partnership with them reaffirms our
commitment to providing creative talent with a comfortable home at United
Artists and a dedicated distribution partner in MGM. United Artists is once
again the haven for independent filmmakers and a vital resource in developing
quality filmed entertainment consistent with MGM’s modern studio model.”

Wagner tells World
Screen how she and Cruise plan to
rejuvenate UA’s legacy.

WS: You have said that
you have the opportunity to take the UA brand and help it evolve into the
future. What are your priorities in doing that?

WAGNER: United Artists
has a unique legacy as a talent-friendly studio run by filmmakers for
filmmakers, dating back to its founding by movie greats Douglas Fairbanks,
Charlie Chaplin, Mary Pickford and D. W. Griffith some 85 years ago. The new
United Artists is committed to making a wide range of movies, from big
franchise pictures to more personal, story-driven films. If there’s a common
denominator, it’s filmmaker-driven projects that reflect the UA legacy.

WS: What
challenges face the movie business, and how must a studio prepare for the
future?

WAGNER: Obviously,
new technology is redefining the future of the entertainment industry. And
we’re repeatedly told that the proliferation of radically new formats and
platforms challenge us in ways and to an extent that we’ve never seen before.
Well, maybe they do. But I happen to be an optimist, so I believe that while
the challenges may be awesome, so are the opportunities. I think the best way
we as a studio can respond is to focus on making fiscally responsible, great
quality movies for a diverse audience, because no matter what new technological
advances arrive in the marketplace, there will always be a need for content. As
Shakespeare wrote, “The play’s the thing.”

WS: What kind
of environment can directors, writers, producers and actors find at UA today?

WAGNER: I
hope they will find a creative, collaborative environment where gifted
filmmakers can thrive and pursue their creative visions.

WS: How much
freedom will talent have to pursue their own creative vision, and how is UA
different from the traditional studio system?

WAGNER: I like
to think that we extend enormous creative freedom to the artists with whom we
work. This is UA’s historical legacy and it’s what we’re all about today. What
makes United Artists different is that while we produce, market and finance our
films, we are a modest-sized, nimble organization that is not burdened by
bureaucracy or corporate interference.

WS:
Approximately how many movies do you plan to make each year?

WAGNER: The
studio expects to release four to six films annually, and we anticipate a
production slate of 15 to 18 films over the next five years with a wide range
of budgets and genres. UA’s slate will include a combination of films it
develops itself, films that are co-produced or co-financed with other major
studios or independent partners, and films that may be acquired through
negative pickups [when a studio agrees to purchase the domestic, international,
DVD and/or TV rights of a movie from a producer and then splits the net profits
with the producer] or other distribution agreements.

WS: How many
movies will Tom Cruise star in each year?

WAGNER: Tom
will appear in some UA films—he will appear in the soon-to-be released Lions
for Lambs and next year’s Valkyrie—but not necessarily all of them. In fact,
UA’s third film will be Oliver Stone’s Pinkville, starring Bruce Willis and Channing Tatum. Tom
will also appear in films made by other studios.

WS: What
upcoming projects can you tell us about?

WAGNER: Our
first film is Lions for Lambs,
directed by Robert Redford and starring Redford, Meryl Streep and Tom Cruise,
which will be released on November 9. UA’s second movie is Valkyrie, which is currently filming in Germany, with Bryan
Singer directing and Cruise starring. Valkyrie is scheduled to be ready for release in the summer
of 2008. Our third film will be Oliver Stone’s Pinkville.

WS: Moviemaking
is a hit-or-miss business, and for indies even more so. What can UA do to
minimize some of those risks?

WAGNER: You
can never eliminate the risk in moviemaking, but you certainly can improve the
odds by working with the best talent available. And that is our intention.

WS: In Lions
for Lambs, Cruise, Redford and
Streep deferred their usual upfront fees or percentages of gross revenues in
exchange for cumulatively splitting half the profits with UA. Is this a
financing model you would like to use on other movies as well to help contain
risks and to attract top talent?

WAGNER: We
will use this model when it is appropriate. It certainly made sense for Lions
for Lambs.

WS: What kind
of financial discipline can you impose without sacrificing creativity?

WAGNER: Any
good businessperson applies financial discipline to everything they do. The
movie business is and should be no different. I don’t believe you have to
sacrifice creativity to have business success. To the contrary, great art
requires discipline.

WS: Some
people argue that franchises can be less risky than “original” movies. Do you
envision producing franchises?

WAGNER: I
envision UA producing all sorts of movies. Based on our past experience and our
enormous success with the Mission: Impossible franchise, I think Tom and I are certainly open to
pursuing similar projects at UA.

WS: What is
UA’s relationship with MGM? How much autonomy do you have in greenlighting
films?

WAGNER: United
Artists is co-owned by me, Tom Cruise, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM).
Within certain budgetary restraints, Tom and I have total authority to
greenlight films. We also work with MGM to distribute UA films.

WS: While the
DVD and VOD markets have greatly boosted revenues for many independent
producers, they can be doorways to piracy. Is there anything that can be done
nowadays to prevent piracy?

WAGNER: This is
a complicated issue, and there are experts who can discuss the intricacies. I
will say that technology is an important part of the entertainment industry’s
future, and we need to figure out how to leverage the future in a way that
doesn’t diminish the value of content and its creators.

WS: You’ve
experienced the filmmaking business from many different angles. What skills do
you bring to UA that help you in your position as CEO?

WAGNER: I
started out in this business as an actress and a writer. I then spent 15 years
as a motion-picture agent at CAA and then another 13 as a producer. And now, of
course, I run a movie studio. What’s significant about my background, and what
prepared me well for this job, I think, is not simply that I’ve had the
privilege of seeing the business from a number of different viewpoints, and
that I’ve been in the trenches in nearly every aspect of the business, but that
without meaning to, I wound up traveling a road that runs right through its
heart.

WS: What do
you enjoy most about your job?

WAGNER: The
wonderful people that I have the privilege of working with each and every day.
I also love that every day something new happens—it’s an adventure.