Biz and tech, 8/24.

"Cruise Goes Indie" is precisely the phrase I'd decided to use here when I saw all those blazing headlines yesterday morning, but Anne Thompson beat me to it. Eugene Hernandez, though, thinks she's serious. Now I'm confused.

Regardless, in case you haven't heard, even if you run a major Hollywood studio, your ass is not your ass as long as a global media conglomerate is calling the shots. Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone aimed one at Tom Cruise yesterday, firing him, basically, and Paramount chairman Brad Grey has so far been very, very quiet.

In Variety, Michael Fleming and Chris Gardner look into the matter of what'll happen to the projects Cruise and his producing partner Paula Wagner had been developing with Paramount. In short, it's too early to tell, but: "Negotiations could get very complicated." They explain. Via Movie City News, also recommending the piece as the most substantial story yet.

Updated through 8/27.

Oliver Burkeman reports for the Guardian, which considers this a front page story; the New York Times team gets quotage, plus commentary from Caryn James; the Los Angeles Times sees a decline in A-list clout and notes that Wall Street approves; the Hollywood Reporter's Nicole Sperling hears that it's all about DVD sales.

For fun: Nikki Finke roars at the Huffington Post and Deadline Hollywood Daily; the Wall Street Journal's Marisa Marr, who broke the story, does not on NPR.

"We started with Tom Cruise and we end with Tom Cruise... ah, the horror of symmetry." David Poland looks back on the summer. "In the most expensive summer season ever, studios were hit by the harsh realization - which started becoming clear 18 months ago, when Christmas DVD movie sales disappointed - that they could lose a shitload of money."

But in Iran, the movie business is booming. Alireza Ronaghi reports for Reuters. Iranians are flocking to "a greater number of homegrown romantic comedies."

"In many ways, Apple is uniquely positioned to transform the home AV space the way they transformed the music industry," writes Steven Johnson at Slate. Related: At GigaOM, Robert Young suggests that Apple buy YouTube. But that was before Sony bought Grouper. Business Week's Catherine Holahan surveys other potential online video acquisition targets.

Stephanie Kang reports in the Wall Street Journal on a forthcoming videogame "set in the period between "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, during the rise of the rebellion against Darth Vader and the Empire. Jim Ward, president of LucasArts, the videogame unit of Lucasfilm, says players will discover new pieces of the Star Wars story that help fill in the blanks."

Update: Doug Ireland argues that Redstone fired the wrong guy.

Updates, 8/25: "As the drama took on almost Shakespearean proportions, here's how the major players emerged." Anne Thompson in the Hollywood Reporter: "Redstone was sending a message: We are no longer coddling talent. There were many in Hollywood who applauded his bravado.... Grey now has several fires to put out." As for CAA, "the whole episode is illustrative of how studios are taking back power from the agencies." And Cruise? "Freeing himself from a studio like Paramount could be the best thing to happen to him."

Jon Healey rounds up coverage in the Los Angeles Times.

Neal Gabler chimes in in the New York Times.

Updates, 8/26: Online viewing tip: David Poland.

David Usborne profiles Redstone in the Independent.

The Los Angeles Times presents a "Tom Cruise Week-In-Review" quiz. Also, Cam Simpson reports on Cruise's efforts to enlist the State Department "in Scientology's battle for legitimacy in Europe under the banner of religious freedom."

Update, 8/27: "If we're lucky the movie industry will go the way of the record industry and the world will find itself back in a frenzy of DIY creativity where artists can control their own destinies." Ann Magnuson at Papermag, via the Filter.

Posted by dwhudson at August 24, 2006 4:32 AM