Snyder, who threw the box-office star a multimillion dollar life of an overhead and development cost deal days after Cruise was booted off Paramount's lot, looks like he may be interested in funding movies for the new United Artists stakeholder.

Over the last two months Snyder has been actively meeting with Hollywood talent agencies - including Creative Artists Agency, which reps Cruise - to get advice about how to break into the film business, according to two sources with knowledge of the meetings. [...]

A Snyder cash infusion would be a huge win for Cruise, who returned from his Sumner Redstone banishment last week with everything but investment cash to fund his projects in hand.

But just as quickly as you can say "show me the amusement park money," the Post finds an anonymous source who thinks that Cruise and MGM just want to play people like Snyder for suckers:

Cruise/Wagner will have to co-finance movies - with budgets ranging from $40 million to $60 million - with their own money or by raising it through third-party investors.

"They're looking for fool's money," said one source. "MGM will put up seed money in the hopes of luring the bulk of the financing out of a dumb financial player before they realize just how risky it is to pour money into movies."

Once Snyder's huge checks clear and he moves on to the next potential investor, it's not hard to imagine that his new BFF will suddenly find himself a little too busy to spend lazy afternoons hanging out in the owner's box at FedEx Field, returning all of Snyder's plaintive "where r u? great game 2day, buddy!" texts with terse, "sorry...gotta work. next time, donny" responses.

• TOMMY'S GUN [NY Post via Wiretap]

• Us Weekly [Us Magazine.com]
• Previously: Cruise-Holmes Wedding Happening Pretty Soon, Probably [Defamer]