Redstone was smart to ditch Tom Cruise


Viacom Inc. (NYSE:VIA) Chairman Sumner Redstone was recently bragging about his company's Paramount film studios to the press like a proud parent. It also underscores why he doesn't need Tom Cruise.

The company's "Dreamgirls" film has snagged eight Academy Awards nominations, "Babel" is nominated for "Best Picture" and "Norbit" now has the top spot at the box office. Plus, the studio has promising features such as "Transformers" and a new Indiana Jones film in the pipeline.

Redstone makes the point to the Hollywood Reporter that Hollywood continues to overpay "the talent." "Because it is not the talent that makes the movie, it is the script," he said. "'The play's the thing,' as someone once said. And if you have a great script, the talent rushes to appear in it and at not too heavy a price."

He's right of course and so was Shakespeare.

High-priced actors will appear in a low-budget film if they like the script. They will also appear in bad, big-budget films for a big pay check. Fans will only put up with their favorite stars appearing in bad movies for so long before that actor's brand is tarnished. That's why Redstone was smart to end Paramount's deal with Cruise.

Paramount's rebound will help Viacom's bottom line, particularly when these movies come out in DVDs.

Since he's interested in good scripts, I wonder if I should mail Redstone my coming-of-age comedy about an aspiring hip-hop star from the mean streets of Scarsdale. Does anybody have his email address?

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