How Tom Cruise and Timothée Chalamet are bringing cinema full circle
For an industry that’s constantly forced to adapt and evolve with the times, cinema can often be a cyclical place. The models and methods may have changed, but Tom Cruise and Timothée Chalamet have made recent moves indicating that Hollywood could be shifting its focus back towards a ‘Golden Age’ staple.
The studio system dominated the early decades of cinema, and even now, there hasn’t been an upstart capable of challenging the established ‘Big Five’ of Warner Bros, Paramount, Universal, Sony, and Disney. There have been several pretenders to the throne, and streaming services have gained plenty of attention, but there hasn’t been a genuinely seismic shift in what feels like forever.
As part of the studio-dominated system, a ‘Big Five’ studio would lean heavily on the appeal of its biggest names to draw in audiences. A-listers would sign exclusive contracts that would tie them to a certain outfit for an extended period of time, establishing them as one of the jewels in a crown that could almost always be relied on to draw in an audience and do big business at the box office.
It’s something Cruise has experienced, having spent 14 years at Paramount before being jettisoned in the wake of some controversial public appearances, which coincided with the star deciding to forego his auteur-friendly years in favour of allowing his persona and brand to dictate his career choices. However, things look as though they’re coming full circle, and Chalamet appears to be coming along for the ride.
Within the space of two months, Cruise and Chalamet both signed deals with Warner Bros to develop, produce, and star in major productions that are set to be heavily reliant on their respective star power. They may be of entirely different generations and separated by more than 30 years of age, but the intentions are largely the same.
For Cruise, it gives him the opportunity to broaden his horizons, with Alejandro G. Iñárritu earmarked as one of his first major creative partners under the terms of his agreement with Warner Bros. Dubbed as a “strategic partnership”, the Mission: Impossible figurehead now has an office on the studio lot and will dovetail between original, smaller-scale projects and the franchise fare that turned him into an enduring A-list resident.
Chalamet, meanwhile, is WB’s new golden child after taking top billing in the Dune saga and Wonka, which have combined to earn close to $2 billion at the box office with him in the lead. In a statement celebrating the ink drying on the contract, the Academy Award nominee referred to Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy as “studio heads who believe in real moviemaking, and I’m so grateful for their support as an actor, producer, and collaborator”.
A heavyweight studio signing a first-look development deal with a production company founded, owned, operated, or tied to a recognisable star is hardly out of the ordinary. What makes Warner Bros’ deals with Cruise and Chalamet especially interesting, though, is that neither of them currently has a banner to call their very own, with the deals struck solely based on their name value, creativity, and potential to make money together as opposed to a larger organisation that produces a steady pipeline of projects.
On paper, it harks back to the old days when the ‘Big Five’ would make a point of tying down the most notable names in Tinseltown, and they don’t come much more prominent these days than Cruise and Chalamet. The symbiotic relationship between star and studio may have been in danger of becoming a thing of the past, but with Warner Bros nabbing a pair of actors who, between them, appeal to virtually every demographic with any interest in taking a trip to their local cinema, what’s old could very well be new all over again.
