By David Willis
BBC News, Los Angeles
Since taking over the running of his father’s three drive-in movie theatres in the mid-1950s, Sumner Redstone has transformed the business into one of the biggest media conglomerates in the world - Viacom.
Now aged 86, he overseas the running of his empire, which also includes Paramount Pictures, US TV network CBS and a number of cable channels such as MTV, from a cosy Mediterranean-style villa high in the Hollywood Hills.
Having cheated death twice - cancer and a hotel fire - he says retiring is simply not on the agenda. And when it comes to dying, well, that’s just for wimps.
This zest for immortality may have something to do with the fact that both he and Paramount have a great deal to be pleased about.
Amid a record summer at the US box office, with $4.3bn-worth of movie tickets sold, three Paramount films managed to take audiences by storm.
Number one
Star Trek and GI Joe both proved just the sort of escapist fare to please recession-weary audiences, while Transformers - Revenge Of The Fallen set a box office record on its opening day and is merrily clunking its way towards $1bn in ticket sales worldwide.
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“We stand a good chance to be the largest grossing picture of the year a good chance to be number one. And number one interests me,” he says of Transformers.
“Interests me” is probably an understatement. Unlike many other self-made men, Sumner Redstone boasts no fine art collection, no stable of custom cars and no network of second homes.
Those who know him say he is driven not by money, but by something much less tangible: an innately competitive spirit, a fierce will to win and the work ethic of a man possessed.
Yet although Transformers seems set to be number one, not everything in the Paramount garden is rosy.
New model
Gone are the days when the big Hollywood movie studios owned the cinemas and raised the bulk of their revenue from ticket receipts.
Now those monopolies have been broken up and the revenue goes to the people who own the movie theatres, leaving the studios to rely on DVD sales as their principal source of revenue.
But, those sales have plummeted - largely thanks to the recession - at the same time that bank loans have dried up and advertising revenue has taken a nose-dive.
Paradoxically perhaps, Paramount is cutting back on the number of films it makes - and delaying the release of other blockbusters - just at a time when audiences have rarely been keener to take a trip to the movie theatre.
They are not alone. Other big studios are making similar cuts and some are also sending their big stars the same curt message that Mr Redstone sent to Tom Cruise: it’s time for a pay cut.
“I like Tom a lot, he remains a great actor and I hope we’ll use him again. But he had a $10m deal [with us, and] to pay someone an enormous amount of money just to be on your lot is stupid. And stupid doesn’t work,” he adds.
Fewer films in production means less work for the big stars, but also for the gaffers, key grips, best boys and legions of others who make their living in the industry.
New direction
By some estimates, the recession had already cost Hollywood 20,000 jobs, and more could follow if troubled MGM fails to get capital restructuring to pay its creditors.
But despite all this, Mr Redstone remains bullish about the future.
The recession has proved that people still watch films, both in good times and bad. So-called “new media” - such as video on demand - will only serve to increase the number of platforms on which studios can sell their product, while a switch to 3D could give a new lease of life to the sector.
The one area of uncertainty he has yet to address is who will assume the running of his empire once the movie gods eventually yell “cut”.
The feisty billionaire says he hasn’t decided - but what does it matter, anyway, given his insistence that he plans to run Viacom from beyond the grave.