Cruise Goes Indie

Tom Cruise has not made his deal at Paramount--he has gone indie --the WSJ broke the story, also reported here by Reuters. ADD: here's the THR story that I was reporting today. The question is, what really happened? Paramount made an offer— but it was one that Cruise could refuse. Redstone laid out the so-called reason for the split. Truth is, if Cruise had killed with M:I III, they might have made a deal. Cruise's cock-eyed behavior gave the studio the excuse not to. There's also merit in the idea that Cruise/Wagner preferred to call their own shots and not play the studio game. If more stars did the same, we might end up with better movies.