CRUISE SETS UP FINANCING FOR OWN COMPANY.

Byline: GREG HERNANDEZ Staff Writer

Less than a week after the highly public and acrimonious split between Tom Cruise and Paramount Pictures, the actor and his producing partner, Paula Wagner, announced Monday that they have secured $3 million in financing to run their production company.

In a two-year deal with an option for lengthy renewal, Cruise/Wagner Productions is getting the money from First and Goal LLC, an investment partnership headed by Washington Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder, Six Flags Inc. Chairman Mark Shapiro and NVR Inc. Chairman Dwight Schar.

``Tom and I have had a plan to build an independent company, and partnering with highly regarded entrepreneurs like Dan, Mark and Dwight will offer us a tremendous opportunity to be at the forefront of where the motion picture industry is moving,'' Wagner said in a statement. ``We are entering into what we know will be a profitable relationship with unlimited creative and financial potential for both our groups.''

But analyst Hal Vogel, chief executive officer of Vogel Capital in New York, is taking a wait-and-see attitude since the company does not yet have funding to make movies.

``There's nothing here yet,'' Vogel said. ``So, he got his overhead covered. It looks to me like Mr. Snyder's group just basically has an option to potentially fund and have a first look. It's $3 million, not $100 million. That gets you enough to rent space and look at projects. It's hardly a green light to have a picture made.''

The arrangement sets Cruise/Wagner, which produced the ``Mission: Impossible'' franchise for Paramount, up as an independently financed company that can work with any distributor. Cruise also continues to be free to work with various studios such as Warner Bros., for whom he starred in ``The Last Samarai,'' which Cruise/Wagner also produced.

``Paula and Tom have a superior instinct for developing and producing films with universal appeal,'' stated Snyder, who purchased the Redskins in 1999 for a record $800 million. ``We are delighted to work with them in creating an alliance that goes beyond traditional film financing models and serves as an exceptional investment for us.''

The first public sign that all was not well between Cruise and Paramount came last month when it was learned that Cruise/Wagner had been offered a reduced figure of just $2 million annually -- down from a previous $10.5 million deal -- to run their offices on the Paramount lot.

Then came the blast heard last week throughout Hollywood and beyond when Sumner Redstone, chairman of Paramount's parent company Viacom Inc., blamed Cruise's off-screen behavior for the lower-than-expected grosses for his most recent film ``Mission: Impossible III.''

That behavior included a number of highly criticized public appearances by Cruise: a combative appearance on ``The Today Show'' during which he criticized actress Brooke Shields for taking anti-depressants to treat postpartum depression and a couch-jumping incident on ``The Oprah Winfrey Show'' as the actor proclaimed his love for actress Katie Holmes, who recently gave birth to their baby daughter.

Cruise also began stumping more zealously for the Church of Scientology, a controversial, self-help belief system that he has long followed.

But it seems all might have been forgiven had ``M:I3'' been a bigger hit. It launched the summer movie season with far less firepower than expected with an opening weekend gross of $47.7 million, then stalled at $133.4 domestically. That fell well short of the $215.4 million ``Mission: Impossible II'' grossed domestically in 2000.

Cruise, 44, has long been one of the movie industry's biggest stars since bursting onto the scene in ``Risky Business'' in 1983. His first $100 million-grossing hit was for Paramount in 1986 with ``Top Gun.'' Since then, 13 more Cruise vehicles have reached that milestone domestically, including the past seven in a row.

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com

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