Tom Cruise’s United Artists Cuts Deal with WGA
Writers Guild Agreement Allows Production Company to Use Union Writers
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 1/7/2008 10:22:00 AM
Tom Cruise’s United Artists Films has crafted an agreement with the Writers Guild of America, which should allow the production company to move back into production with union writers.
The WGA declined to detail the terms of the agreement, other than to state the “comprehensive agreement addresses issues important to writers, including new media.”
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios is the major shareholder in United Artists. This agreement, however, does not extend to MGM.
Cruise operates the production company with long-time partner, Paula Wagner, who is the production company’s CEO. Wagner said the agreement makes “good business sense” for UA. She noted that the agreement is in keeping with the philosophy of UA’s original founders.
United Artists was founded in 1919 by stars including Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Charlie Chaplin, because the performers wanted more control over their work than was afforded under their studio employment contracts.
“United Artists has lived up to its name. UA and the Writers Guild came together and negotiated seriously,” said Patric Verrone, president of the Writers Guild of America, West.
