Will the last person to leave United Artists please 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 (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 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. 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 inside 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..."
My prediction is Paula, Tom and UA will make movies after bulking up with a few choice properties and producers to do the development work of non-development executives.
Comment by reelbusy — August 11, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
Please someone tell them that the name of this company is not “Splitted Artists”.
For my generation, UA means the notes of the great Joe Harnell just before the gun barrel sequence of Bond, or the fanfare from Rocky. Almost a good 15% of why I do what I do today.
Comment by Thierry Attard — August 12, 2008 @ 1:17 am
I think there was a window opportunity for Cruise/Wagner to really to make UA their own.
Frankly I think the dreaded Hollywood death clock has already started ticking for Paula and Tom.
Sooner or later MGM will simply ‘re-absorb’ UA and it’s money and Cruise/Wagner will sign a traditional first look deal with a deep pocketed studio like Sony or Warners.
Comment by Warner Borg — August 12, 2008 @ 2:30 am
Well Tom and Paula, if I can call you by your first names. Try sci fi. In fact option my new scifi script.
Superheroes rule today, but unless you know Captain 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 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.
To paraphrase a line that should have been in the Player( novel) if you don’t spend it you cannot get anymore. Caz it always about return on investment. Ciao
Comment by writerdjb — August 12, 2008 @ 3:34 am
They have a fat credit line, and they’re not doing anything with it?
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 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.
Then they can go and make the less commercial flicks, to make themselves feel important.
Of course, an experienced development executive could probably have done all this from the get-go.
Comment by Furious D — August 12, 2008 @ 4:40 am
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.
Comment by Santayana — August 12, 2008 @ 8:25 am
if i had that job i could make the best movies ever but i’m sure some lame guy will get hired and they’ll just make same old same old
Comment by denver — August 12, 2008 @ 12:15 pm
This whole Tom Cruise collapse, I can’t tell if it’s more Norma Desmond or Charles Foster Kane….only time will tell. Gonna make a great movie in 50 years, you wait.
Comment by Duke Theodore — August 12, 2008 @ 12:23 pm
From someone 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…
Comment by Not Surprised — August 12, 2008 @ 3:51 pm
“Do the UA people even know how to develop in an appropriate or effective manner?”
… Obviously, because all there movies sucked and were finacial disasters. The only one that did well was “The Others”, and they really had nothing to do with developing it.
Comment by Ima Jackson — August 12, 2008 @ 10:27 pm