Big news dropped last night. Tom Cruise, apparently, is partnering up with Warner Bros., and the first thing I got asked on the show was the fair question: call me crazy, but I don’t understand what the big deal is. So he has an office at Warner Bros. now. So what?
It’s a big deal because of where he’s coming from. Mission: Impossible, Tom Cruise, a lot of that stuff lives at Paramount right now. And Paramount itself has been at the center of a lot lately.
Paramount Is Already Selling Off the Furniture
They just got finished with the rights to the Star Trek movies. Forgive me, they didn’t sell them all. They licensed them to other places. So the home of Star Trek no longer keeps the movies, only the series.
On top of that, there’ve been rumors of Zaslav or other people having meetings, nibbling around the edges of maybe buying Paramount, or parts of Paramount, similar to what Disney did with Fox. Again, those are rumors and talks. Meetings have definitely happened, but to be honest, we don’t know the extent of those meetings.
So when you sit here and ask what the big deal is, Tom Cruise is a major player who doesn’t go anywhere he’s not ready to go, or where he’s not planning to do something.
No, He’s Not Joining the DCU
Now they’re saying he’s going there to create and expand new franchises, this and that, and the internet is rife with people saying he’s got to join the DCU.
No, he’s not. No, he’s not. Tom Cruise doesn’t in any way, shape or form care about big blockbuster franchises or that nonsense. What he wants to do is start his own original stuff.
I was reading The InSneider, which is a newsletter run by Jeff Sneider, a big, big Hollywood journalist who’s gone independent. You absolutely need to check out his newsletter if you haven’t yet. One of the things he pointed out was that Tom Cruise is going there to create whatever his next legacy thing is. He’ll probably start bringing us more higher end material, more Oscar worthy type stuff. He’s looking to make bigger splashes than we might think, and he’s not going to put on tights to do it.
That’s my feeling. It’s a big opportunity that he gets to have, and I’m here for it. I’m down. I’m excited more than worried.
What It Says About Paramount
Now, on the flip side, it doesn’t bode well that one of Paramount’s largest earners and biggest partners is jumping ship. That could spell a lot of issues for Paramount, and it’s something we should keep our eyes on in terms of what’s going to end up happening.
We all knew the streaming wars were bred out of the pandemic, at least to the extent they’re at today. Everybody wanted a streaming service. NBC, Paramount, CBS, blah blah blah, everybody. And we all knew there was going to be wreckage. There were going to be people who weren’t going to survive.
There’s every possibility Paramount’s not going to survive the streaming wars. I believe eventually someone will wrap them up or roll them in. Something’s going to happen, even if it’s them saying hey, we’re just going to go back to licensing our material only, we’re not going to have a service of any kind. That’s fine. But let’s not pretend the idea that we’re going to lose somebody is a surprise.
It sucks if it’s Paramount, because I believe we’re in the second golden age of Star Trek. I’m loving everything that’s coming out. I’m not exactly looking at watching Cheers or Frasier anytime soon, but I’m definitely there for the Star Trek of it all.
Excited or worried? Tell me what you think Tom Cruise is actually going to make at Warner Bros., and whether you think Paramount makes it out of the streaming wars. The conversation lives in the comments on the video above.
