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The Future. Former Netflix film chief Scott Stuber has inked a deal with Amazon/MGM to relaunch the storied United Artists (UA) label, giving the producer a role that straddles the line between streaming and theatrical. If UA is bringing back its old business model of providing filmmakers and actors more of a stake in the movies they make, expect the studio to quickly attract the biggest talent in the world for its debut slate.
Studio 3.0
Stuber will produce and finance “big, broad films” for UA, per Amazon’s press release, which will be released in theaters and on Prime Video.
- UA — which was founded in 1919 by industry legends Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, Mary Pickford, and Douglas Fairbanks — started with the mission of giving actors more creative and financial control over their films.
- It was acquired by MGM in 1981 and has since had manyroles within the studio (including a very brief revival under Tom Cruise and producer Paula Wagner), but it technically hasn’t released a movie since 2010.
- Amazon acquired MGM (which still owns the UA label) in 2021, making the legacy studio the flagship of its growing theatrical ambitions.
By installing Stuber, who built Netflix’s film division, Amazon gets a proven hitmaker. For Stuber, he gets the chance to play on the big screen (which he tried to push Netflix to do for years and did so successfully at Universal before that) and flex his massive Rolodex of talent for high-profile projects.
But here’s the million-dollar question: is UA just reviving as a label or as a studio division intent on giving creatives more control? Only time will tell.
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