Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner, the new heads of the reactivated United Artists (UA), will make a presentation to delegates at Cinema Expo International in Amsterdam on Thursday evening, screening five-and-a-half minutes of footage from UA's first feature Lions For Lambs in which Cruise stars.
They will be joined in the presentation by Tomas Jegeus and Paul Hanneman, the co-presidents of 20th Century Fox International, which is handling international theatrical distribution on the UA movies per its existing relationship with MGM.
Lions For Lambs is considered one of the awards seasons heavweights this winter. Directed by Robert Redford, it stars Cruise as a congressman, Meryl Streep as a journalist and Redford himself as a professor whose lives interconnect after two American soldiers are wounded in Afghanistan.
The domestic release is set for Nov 9 in prime awards consideration season, with international starting soon afterwards and going into 2008.
The appearance at the trade show by Cruise and Wagner underlines the importance Cruise has always designated to the international marketplace where his films have routinely outperformed domestic. In some cases, international has been dramatically higher. The Last Samurai, for example, took $345m in international compared to $111.1m in domestic and all three Mission: Impossible movies were bigger international hits. The last film, Mission: Impossible III doubled its $134m domestic gross overseas.
Cruise and Wagner took the helm at the UA label in partnership with MGM in Nov last year and came soon after the duo had parted ways with Paramount Pictures. Lions For Lambs was quickly named as the first project from the company, while Cruise is due to start shooting the second, World War II thriller Valkyrie, in Germany in July. Cruise stars alongside Kenneth Branagh, Carice Van Houten and Tom Wilkinson in the film about the 1944 plot to kill Hitler. Bryan Singer is directing.
MGM will fully finance the UA films, bringing in partners where appropriate. MGM handles all domestic and worldwide television distribution, while Fox International handles international theatrical and worldwide home entertainment rights.
They will be joined in the presentation by Tomas Jegeus and Paul Hanneman, the co-presidents of 20th Century Fox International, which is handling international theatrical distribution on the UA movies per its existing relationship with MGM.
Lions For Lambs is considered one of the awards seasons heavweights this winter. Directed by Robert Redford, it stars Cruise as a congressman, Meryl Streep as a journalist and Redford himself as a professor whose lives interconnect after two American soldiers are wounded in Afghanistan.
The domestic release is set for Nov 9 in prime awards consideration season, with international starting soon afterwards and going into 2008.
The appearance at the trade show by Cruise and Wagner underlines the importance Cruise has always designated to the international marketplace where his films have routinely outperformed domestic. In some cases, international has been dramatically higher. The Last Samurai, for example, took $345m in international compared to $111.1m in domestic and all three Mission: Impossible movies were bigger international hits. The last film, Mission: Impossible III doubled its $134m domestic gross overseas.
Cruise and Wagner took the helm at the UA label in partnership with MGM in Nov last year and came soon after the duo had parted ways with Paramount Pictures. Lions For Lambs was quickly named as the first project from the company, while Cruise is due to start shooting the second, World War II thriller Valkyrie, in Germany in July. Cruise stars alongside Kenneth Branagh, Carice Van Houten and Tom Wilkinson in the film about the 1944 plot to kill Hitler. Bryan Singer is directing.
MGM will fully finance the UA films, bringing in partners where appropriate. MGM handles all domestic and worldwide television distribution, while Fox International handles international theatrical and worldwide home entertainment rights.
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