Paula Wagner is an American film producer and film executive.

Early career

Wagner began her career at Creative Artists Agency. In 1993 she launched Cruise/Wagner Productions (C/W) with her former CAA client Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise

Thomas Cruise Mapother IV , better known as Tom Cruise, is an American film actor and producer. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards and he has won three Golden Globe Awards....

. C/W's first film, Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible (film)

Mission: Impossible is a 1996 action thriller directed by Brian De Palma and starring Tom Cruise. Following on from the television series of the same name, the plot follows a new agent, Ethan Hunt and his mission to uncover the mole within the CIA who has framed him for the murders of his entire...

, was an international hit that brought the company the 1997 Nova Award for Most Promising Producers. Wagner went on to produce Without Limits

Without Limits

Without Limits is a 1998 biographical film about the relationship between record-breaking distance runner Steve Prefontaine and his coach Bill Bowerman, who later co-founded Nike, Inc....

, Shattered Glass, Narc

Narc (film)

Narc is a 2002 crime film about corrupt police involved in the illegal drug trade. It was released to critical acclaim and moderate commercial success. It was written and directed by Joe Carnahan. The plot revolves around the efforts of two police detectives as they search for the murderer of an...

, The Others

The Others (2001 film)

The Others is a 2001 psychological horror film by the Spanish-Chilean director Alejandro Amenábar, starring Nicole Kidman. It is inspired partly by the novella The Turn of the Screw....

, Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky

Vanilla Sky is a 2001 American psychological thriller film directed, co-produced and co-written by Cameron Crowe. The film is an English-language remake of the 1997 Spanish movie Abre los ojos , the screenplay for which was written by Alejandro Amenábar and Mateo Gil...

, and The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai

The Last Samurai is a 2003 American epic drama film directed and co-produced by Edward Zwick, who also co-wrote the screenplay based on a story by John Logan. The film was inspired by a project developed by writer and director Vincent Ward, who had previously filmed the movie in 1990, starring...

, Mission: Impossible II

Mission: Impossible II

Mission: Impossible II is a 2000 action film directed by John Woo, and starring Tom Cruise, who also served as the film's producer...

, Mission: Impossible III

Mission: Impossible III

Mission: Impossible III is a 2006 spy film, the third based on the spy-themed television series Mission: Impossible starring Tom Cruise who reprises his role of IMF agent Ethan Hunt....

, and Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg

Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...

's War Of The Worlds

War of the Worlds (2005 film)

War of the Worlds is a 2005 American science fiction film adaptation of H. G. Wells' novel of the same name, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Josh Friedman and David Koepp. It is one of three film adaptations of War of the Worlds released that year, alongside The Asylum's version and...

for which she was the executive producer.

Wagner paired Tom Cruise with Oliver Stone for Born on the Fourth of July

Born on the Fourth of July (film)

Born on the Fourth of July is a 1989 American film adaptation of the best selling autobiography of the same name by Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic. Tom Cruise plays Kovic, in a performance that earned him his first Academy Award nomination. Oliver Stone co-wrote the screenplay with Kovic, and also...

, paired Val Kilmer

Val Kilmer

Val Edward Kilmer is an American actor. Originally a stage actor, Kilmer became popular in the mid-1980s after a string of appearances in comedy films, starting with Top Secret! , then the cult classic Real Genius , as well as blockbuster action films, including a supporting role in Top Gun and a...

 with Stone on The Doors

The Doors (film)

The Doors is a 1991 biopic about the 1960s-1970s rock band of the same name which emphasizes the life of its lead singer, Jim Morrison. It was directed by Oliver Stone, and stars Val Kilmer as Morrison, Meg Ryan as Pamela Courson , Kyle MacLachlan as Ray Manzarek, Frank Whaley as Robby Krieger,...

, and helped him cast JFK

JFK (film)

JFK is a 1991 American film directed by Oliver Stone. It examines the events leading to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and alleged subsequent cover-up, through the eyes of former New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison .Garrison filed charges against New Orleans businessman Clay...

.

Wagner was co-owner and CEO of United Artists

United Artists

United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....

 from 2006 to 2008. She is a member of the American Cinematheque’s Board of Directors and sits on the board of the National Film Preservation Foundation

National Film Preservation Foundation

The National Film Preservation Foundation is an independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America’s film heritage. Growing from a national planning effort led by the Library of Congress, the NFPF began operations in 1997. It supports activities nationwide that...

 through the Library of Congress

Library of Congress

The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...

.

Current

Her current efforts are as founder of Chestnut Ridge Productions, a film production company that is developing motion picture, theater, television and new media projects. Wagner's first project is a film adaptation of Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon

Miss Saigon is a musical by Claude-Michel Schönberg and Alain Boublil, with lyrics by Boublil and Richard Maltby, Jr.. It is based on Giacomo Puccini's opera Madame Butterfly, and similarly tells the tragic tale of a doomed romance involving an Asian woman abandoned by her American lover...

, which was planned for 2011 release (now expected in 2012).

Other work

Wagner has received numerous awards and recognitions for her contributions to entertainment and individual film societies. She was honored in 2001 with Premiere magazine's “Women in Hollywood Icon Award” and has been featured in Bravo's "Women on Top" documentary, which profiles exceptional women in entertainment. In 2004 she received the UCLA/Producers Guild of America Visionary Award. She is a recipient of the Excellence in Producing Award at the Sarasota Film Festival, was president of the First-Time Directors Jury at the Venice International Film Festival, co-chaired the Hollywood Film Festival from 2002–2006 and was honored by the Costume Designers Guild with its Swarovski President's Award. She was honored with the Sherry Lansing Award from the Big Brothers Big Sisters Organization. In 2007 she and husband Rick Nicita were awarded the ACLU Bill of Rights Award for championing numerous film projects that highlight civil rights and civil liberty issues.

Wagner is married to Rick Nicita, a former agent at Creative Artists Agency, presently co-chairman and COO of Morgan Creek Productions

Morgan Creek Productions

Morgan Creek Productions is an American film studio that has released box-office hits like Young Guns, Dead Ringers, Major League, True Romance, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, The King and I, The Crush, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and others. The studio was co-founded in 1987 by James G...

.

Wagner serves on the faculty of the Heinz College at Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University

Carnegie Mellon University is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States....

, her alma mater.

External links