Cruise's United Artists studio survives Wall Street mayhem

Washington, Sept 20 : Despite the shaky conditions on Wall Street, American actor Tom Cruise's United Artists (UA) studio will retain its 500 million dollars film-financing fund sanctioned to him.

The sum had been offered to UA by financial services firm Merrill Lynch at the end of last year (07), but with the current volatile financial situation in the U.S., studio bosses were afraid the company would pull out.

After Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America earlier in the week (15Sep08), it was uncertain if the funding would go through.

The deal was further put in jeopardy when Cruise's partner, Paula Wagner, left her role as CEO of the studio this summer (08), making bosses at Merrill Lynch look for ways to revise the sum offered, reported the New York Post.

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which is the parent company of UA, still went ahead with raising film financing after Wagner left, though they had reportedly considered selling the studio in August (08).

"The UA film financing agreement was closed last year. The terms are set and will not change. All of the funds are available to UA," Contactmusic quoted a spokesperson for MGM as having told the newspaper.

But even with the assurance of the payment, insiders revealed that UA might have to wait for their cash.

"Reworking a 500 million dollar credit line for UA is going to be way down (Bank of America's) list of things to do. It could take six months to a year before they even get around to looking at it." a source told the newspaper.

ANI