When MGM announced a year ago that Tom Cruise and business partner Paula Wagner were being brought in to run United Artists, one of the industry’s most legendary studios, it looked like a storybook ending. Instead, the arrangement has unfolded as a typical Hollywood funding scramble. MGM, the parent company of U.A., continues to serve as majority owner, with Cruise and Wagner as minority partners. Wagner told the Los Angeles Times last year that Winchester Capital Management would put up $100 million to help revive the dormant studio, but the deal never went forward. The two have since lined up $500 million from Merrill Lynch, to be distributed over five years. They are planning to produce at least four films a year, with budgets in the $40 million to $60 million range, and in the long run they could need co-financing. Their projects to date include the $35 million Lions for Lambs, due out this month, and the $65 million Valkyrie, both of which star Cruise. But what of the movies that don’t? U.A.’s fate really depends on whether those films can hit it big.