HOLLYWOOD - Movie mogul Martin Scorsese has replaced Tom Cruise as the big man at Paramount after signing a four-year, first-look deal to develop projects with studio executives.
Just days after Scorsese scored his biggest cinema hit by taking new film The Departed past the $100 million mark at the U.S. box office, Paramount boss Brad Grey announced he's thrilled to welcome Scorsese.
In a statement released yesterday, Scorsese says, "I have had a great personal relationship with Brad Grey for several years now and am looking forward to working with him at Paramount, a studio rich in cinematic history and responsible for making some of my favorite films."
Under the terms of the new deal, Scorsese will direct and produce a number of projects from movies to TV dramas.
Cruise was unceremoniously dumped from Paramount this summer by studio boss Sumner Redstone, who stated, "He was embarrassing the studio and he was costing us a lot of money."
Scorsese isn't the only big name tied to Paramount following Cruise's departure--Grey's former partner Brad Pitt is the studio's movie-star coup.
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