Thompson On Hollywood

Oprah Interviews Cruise, Again

Oprah Winfrey interviewed Tom Cruise again and revisited the scene of the couch-jumping incident, among other things, reports Marc Malkin:

The Telluride segment is set to air on Friday. Then on May 5, Cruise will return to Winfrey’s Chicago studio nearly three years after his couch jumping fiasco. So why so much Cruise? It’s the 25th anniversary of his breakout movie, Risky Business.

Trailer Watch: Valkyrie

Check out this Valkyrie trailer, which makes the movie look interesting (if not necessarily commercial). Good cast alongside Tom Cruise: Tom Wilkinson, Bill Nighy, Kenneth Branagh.

Valkyrie trailer.

UA Pushes Back Cruise and Singer's Valkyrie

In retrospect, the MGM-UA idea is starting to look suspect.

When movie star Tom Cruise and partner Paula Wagner had a producing pact at Paramount, a studio controlled the purse strings, with the power to say no.

But put Cruise and Wagner in charge of a studio, and you have Wagner assembling a slate on the one hand, but who does she answer to? Cruise! And CAA (and husband Rick Nicita) are helping to package projects like Lions for Lambs, which was doomed to be a noble failure from the start. From Cruise/Wagner's perspective, coming from big-studio projects, at $35 million Lambs probably seemed like a modest effort. But it was still too expensive for what it was. Its $15 million domestic gross (of which less than half is returned to the studio) didn't cover its marketing costs. It also earned $42 million overseas. The just-launched DVD release will have to bring the movie into the black.

And Valkyrie is a perfect storm. I hear that director Bryan Singer, who has runaway director tendencies anyway, has run up a $90-million negative tab, which probably seemed reasonable to him, since he was coming off the $200-million Superman Returns. Because Cruise had to promote the opening of Lions for Lambs, Singer postponed three key scenes of the Valkyrie shoot, including one big battle sequence in North Africa. (That's when Cruise's Nazi officer loses his right hand, plus two fingers from his left hand, and an eye.)

But pushing the movie's release date back twice has made it look like tainted goods. Cruise and Wagner took a calculated risk pushing it back to February, knowing that an October date was facing off against the looming Presidential election. As soon as Wolfman and the Pink Panther sequel moved off of Presidents Day, UA jumped on the date. Their October weekend usually yields a b.o. of about $55 million, the thinking went, as opposed to Prexy Day, which usually generates about three times that. Singer and Cruise signed off on the promise of a possible Superbowl spot, Berlin Film Fest launch, and a bigger boxoffice bonanza.

They must have known how the town would react. When you say: "No, we don't have a summer movie, it's a fall movie," it really means: "we don't have a commercial movie that will stand up to the competition in wide release, but a quality smart film with possible Oscar potential that needs critics, so we'll go for fall." But push that same movie again into February, and it conjures up All the Kings Men, which was too weak to earn rave reviews and had no identifiable core audience.

The trouble with the whole MGM construct is that a decision about making or picking up a movie for release has to be based on a slew of market equations. Targeting your audience is crucial. Just because Hot Director Bryan Singer and Major Star Tom Cruise want to make a period movie about a Nazi hero doesn't make it worth $90-million (not to mention marketing costs). (Much as I loved it, Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men shouldn't have cost that much either. Who was the audience?)

MGM CEO Harry Sloan was smart to hire Mary Parent to run MGM. She will run studio production, marketing and distribution. (That's why Rick Sands is out.) She will be damn sure to pick movies she can market. That's half the battle. And Hollywood sat up and took notice of this move, because they know that Parent gets it.

Gray Lady Airs Tom Cruise's Open Secret

(Posted by Peter Debruge)

In today's NYTimes, Michael Cieply recounts a Tuesday night industry screening of "Tropic Thunder" in which Tom Cruise "brought down the house with his surprise portrayal of a bald, hairy-chested, foulmouthed, dirty-dancing movie mogul of the kind who is only too happy to throw an actor to the wolves when his popularity cools."

Sure sounds funny. Can we assume Cieply caught this screening? Or was the whole "rapturous reaction" fed to him by the person described in this line?

Mr. Stiller, who played Mr. Cruise's obsessive stunt double in a popular Web video (and who is expected to co-star with him in "Hardy Men"), first talked with Mr. Cruise, his friend, about taking a role more than a year ago, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with the film's promotion."

The whole story reads like the kind of "news" you'd expect to encounter on the Web (which got there first back in November), not in the pages of the Gray Lady. And that popular Web video? Cieply's referring to a televised sketch Stiller and Cruise made for the 2000 MTV Movie Awards. Here's a refresher:

Tom Cruise to the "Rescue" in Superhero Movie Spoof

There was a time when every young actor would've wanted to be the next Tom Cruise, and Miles Fisher may have figured out just the way to turn that notion back into a compliment. Check out this irresistible bit of viral marketing for Superhero Movie:

This isn't the first time director Craig Mazin (who's only other helming credit was the not-so-super-hero spoof The Specials) has taken on Tom Cruise. Some of you may remember how the writer worked a couch-jumping, Oprah-punching incident into Scary Movie 4:

Given the track record for some of these "Movie Movies," it's conceivable that more people will discover Fisher online than see its leading man, Drake Bell, in theaters. In trying to break out of the Nickelodeon box, Bell has certainly taken a different route from his "Drake & Josh" co-star: Josh Peck sells pot, loses his virginity and bares his derrière in the Sundance hit The Wackness.

P.S. Don't miss Gawker's roundup of the best Tom Cruise Scientology spoof videos to date.

(Peter Debruge)

Cruise Career Stalls: The Stats and the Mouth

The late lamented boxofficejunkie delivered an overview of the Tom Cruise career before he hung up his blog; and Peter Bart addresses the downside of Cruise's big mouth.

Cruise Talks Scientology

Gawker's reposted that Tom Cruise Scientology indoctrination video that was taken off the Internet some time back. It's fascinating to see how strongly Cruise feels about his mission in life. He's a Good Samaritan on one hand, but on the other he knows better than everyone else.

Preview of 2008

Tis the season for previews of 2008.

Here's this weekend's annual LAT sneak preview of 2008.

Reelz Channel.

Jeff Sneider.

The Vanity Fair cover story on Indy 4, plus follow-up blog.

[Vanity Fair photo by Annie Leibovitz.]

Cruise Book Reviewed by Maslin

NYT reviewer Janet Maslin says Andrew Morton's new Tom Cruise biography is more an attack on Scientology than an examination of Cruise.

Weekend Boxoffice: American Gangster yes, Lions for Lambs, No

American Gangster should continue to dominate the boxoffice this weekend. It is unlikely that Robert Redford's Lions for Lambs will gain much traction. Here's Variety's review, which seems pretty indicative of the critical drubbing the movie received today. I can't imagine how much money MGM/UA will lose on this one--they've spent a fortune on the advertising. The movie cost about $40-million---not a little indie. Here's Pamela McClintock's take on what's at stake for UA. Finally, this is not how Tom Cruise fans want to see him. No Country for Old Men, on the other hand, scored with critics across the board, and is heading into serious Oscar contender territory.

Fandango Five – Ticket Sales (as of 11/09/07 11:00 a.m. PT):

Movie Fandango User Rating % Fandango Sales

American Gangster Must Go” 21%

Fred Claus “Go” 14%

Bee Movie “Go” 10%

Lions for Lambs “No” 3%

No Country for Old Men “Must Go” 2%

Fandango Weekly Poll (as of 11/09/07 9:00 a.m. PT):

Among the upcoming holiday-themed movies, which one are you most anticipating?

Fred Claus 60%

This Christmas 25%

Thomas Kinkade’s Home for Christmas 6%

The Perfect Holiday 5%

Christmas in Wonderland 4%

Tom Cruise: Year One

John Clark assesses Tom Cruise one year later, post-Paramount, post-Katie and Suri.

I'm curious to see if UA chief Cruise and partner Paula Wagner will be able to put a strong commercial slate of pictures together. Sight unseen, Lions for Lambs looks like a talky drama for adults--which may be terrific--but could prove a hard sell. Former Miramax and Disney PR vet Dennis Rice will give it everything he's got. But it takes a concerted, sustained and coordinated effort to put that kind of movie across.

Cruise Watch: Valkyrie Nazi Shots

While it's true that Tom Cruise is playing a Nazi who was out to assassinate Adolf Hitler, it's still a tad discomforting to see Cruise in full Nazi regalia.

Corporate Power Struggles at DreamWorks, Viacom and Paramount

There's action in Viacom City. With Steven Spielberg positioned with Businessweek's Ron Grover as a possible DreamWorks/Paramount flight risk, and respected Sumner Redstone sprig Shari Redstone possibly leaving the board of her father's company, something's going on.

UPDATE: Well, Shari Redstone ably runs Viacom's exhibition chain National Amusements. One scenario has Redstone pere, 84, letting her walk away with the theater chain he built. It's the business she loves. But the NYT paints a starker, more divisive story.

Over at DreamWorks and Paramount, you'd think everyone would be deliriously happy about their $1 billion hot streak at the boxoffice, which will spawn a litter of Transformers sequels and more. But the truth is, David Geffen hates nothing more than leaving money on the table. While less than two years ago Paramount was accused of paying too much to buy DreamWorks ($1.53 billion) it now looks like they paid too little. Spielberg, especially, hated giving up his dream of ownership of a movie studio. Now that they've scored so big, it looks like they gave up too soon.

But DreamWorks isn't going anywhere. They're enmeshed too deep at Paramount. I understand that Spielberg had the option of getting out of his contract early, but didn't. Instead, DreamWorks had lawyer Skip Brittenham renegotiate, as Grover reports, for Spielberg and Stacey Snider's greenlight authority over higher budgets and more movies. Who wouldn't pick Spielberg and Snider's slate over Brad Weston's?

Which does make it all the more important for the Paramount side of the equation to deliver some hits and prove their worth.

The question that still hovers in the air: what does David Geffen want? There's one big-billion sale that could put smiles on the faces of the DreamWorks troica and make Spielberg renew his contract: DreamWorks Animation. If Paramount, which owns distribution rights to the company's films (two more Shrek sequels are promised), were to buy Animation, what would Jeffrey Katzenberg do then? Current scuttlebut has him filling that open Tom Freston slot. Which would leave Grey working for Sparky.

While that scenario is bound to delight Katzenberg, Spielberg and Geffen, that doesn't mean it's anything more than a delightful fantasy.

Cruise Watch: Scientologist vs. Germany

GreenCine Daily's David Hudson, who is based in Berlin, explains what is really going on with the German government vs. Tom Cruise. According to this story, Cruise isn't banned from filming Valkyrie in Germany after all.

Cruise Watch: Scientology vs. Germany

Fact is, Germany doesn't tolerate Scientology. German society despises the religion, and journalists have gone after Tom Cruise in the past. Now the German Defense Ministry won't permit UA's "Valkyrie", a WW II thriller starring Kenneth Branagh, to shoot on military bases there, reports Variety:

Decision was based on Germany's longstanding contention that Scientology is not a religion but an exploitative, profit-based business concern.

It's not the first time Cruise has butted heads with the German government. In 1996, German politicians called for a boycott of "Mission: Impossible" and other Cruise films (the first in the franchise earned $24.2 million in Germany; volumes two and three brought in $27.7 million and $10.4 million. respectively). In 2004, the star was told that he could not film scenes for "Mission: Impossible III" in Berlin's historic Reichstag, a site strictly off-limits for any lensing, though Scientology was apparently not part of the equation.

Cruise met with U.S. Ambassador to Germany Dan Coats in 2002 in an attempt to get German officials to soften their views on the Church of Scientology, which has been officially monitored there since 1997.