Superheroes rule today, but unless you know Captain America is dead and Storm wont do another X-Men

Will the last person to leave United Artists please los angeles convention center events turn out the lights? I ve just learned that veteran studio executive and film/TV producer Jeff Kleeman has left his position as EVP of production at UA after only 11 months to work with David Dobkin los angeles convention center events ( Wedding Crashers , Shanghai Noon ) who just signed a first-look deal at Warner Bros. Kleeman will be helping Dobkin develop and produce film and TV projects. (This was Kleeman s second go-round at UA )
So now with Kleeman s departure, and that of prez of worldwide marketing and publicity los angeles convention center events Dennis Rice in mid-July, UA is populated by only Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner, Don Granger and a few junior execs. Sources tell me that not long ago Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner almost parted ways inside the company, but they got back on good terms. los angeles convention center events However, the studio once again is virtually moribund, which is heartbreaking considering that big fat credit line UA has in these tightfisted times. If anything, there s frustration los angeles convention center events inside los angeles convention center events and outside UA that, in an economy where it s so difficult to come by money, what s there is just not being spent, a source tells me. Do the UA people even know how to develop in an appropriate or effective manner?
I m told the problem seems to be Wagner, not Cruise. Sources tell me she doesn t pull the trigger. Just look at her history: Paula had unlimited ability to develop projects under C/W at Paramount and still got only two or so movies done all those years that didn t involve Tom. She squandered an incredible opportunity. Like she s doing now.
So what s in store for UA s future? As one source tells me, Paula calls it a day, or the company implodes on its own, or a gun is put to Wagner s head by financiers and she greenlights things and then trusts in luck
Superheroes los angeles convention center events rule today, but unless you know Captain los angeles convention center events America is dead and Storm wont do another X-Men movie, just wait. The comics will not make too much more money, even though Tom would be great as the Flash.
That leaves Tom with the sci fi genre ala Minority Report. Then there is The Firm, maybe Tom can play another lawyer, I have a script for that too. But it’s so been Michael los angeles convention center events Claytonized and Oscar nominated who would ever want to play a lawyer again for the next decade.
Money, it’s meant to be spent. Green lighting is always a guess. That German movie may never ever be released (2009) according to dw world a German website. Please note I like everything Tom has done since Taps so I don’t player hate and speaking of players.
When they started with UA they should have avoided trying to make important Tom Cruise movies like Lions For Lambs and the never-ending story known as Valkyrie s production, and leaped feet first into some broad-appeal Cruise vehicles. A modestly budgeted but well made thriller, maybe an action movie, by making him a profit participant as studio boss rather than shelling los angeles convention center events a mega-sized up-front paycheck would save a lot of money. Meanwhile they should have courted some independent producers to make some other commercial flicks, to get the cash rolling in.
There s a piece missing from this all dressed up and no place to go story, but we don t know what it is yet. Historically, the old UA s proudest boast was, We never owned a camera and they did pretty well especially when Krim, Benjamin et al took over the company in the 50s by releasing other people s movies. UA can still do that by offering a reduced distribution fee, picking up indies on a gross deal (with accounting safeguards), and offering orphaned titles on DVD and VOD to seed their cash stream. In short, they can become an omni-distributor, since distribution is the only way to make real money, while they re preparing their own boutique projects.
From someone los angeles convention center events who knows everything Nikki says in her piece is dead-on. Kleeman is bright and talented and a gentleman and luckily managed to escape the indecisive hell that those who work for PW will continue to endure. Hopefully the other great people there (specifically two other creative execs whose initials are both AS) will be able to make it over the wall at some point as well
Why can t Tom Cruise play Pink Panther? He is way too serious, needs to mellow out, more MEOWs, los angeles convention center events less brainstorming, less moral authority which hardly exists in Hollywood unless you are so fabulously wealthy you can fund your own morality los angeles convention center events films aka that Aussie actor in Malibu who blasted Sunset Boulevard with the word of God.