Los Angeles - Steven Spielberg's Dreamworks Studio announced
the details of its split from Paramount Pictures Monday, an amicable
divorce that allows the most successful US director to start a new
studio with 1.5 billion dollars in funding from Indian entertainment
conglomerate Reliance ADA Group.
Under the exit agreement, DreamWorks will take the lead on 15 to
20 development projects, with Paramount having the option to co-
finance and co-distribute, the studios said in a joint statement.
Paramount would offer the same option to Reliance on the 15 to 20
projects it takes over. Most of DreamWorks staff will stay with the
new entity.
Still to be announced is Spielberg's choice for a new distribution
partner which is widely expected to be Universal Studios.
Spielberg founded DreamWorks SKG in 1994 together with
entertainment moguls David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg and sold it
in 2006 for 1.6 billion dollars to Viacom, Paramount's parent
company.
However, despite producing a string of hits for Paramount
such as Transformers, the DreamWorks partners, which still include
Spielberg, have continually clashed with their corporate bosses.
Geffen will not take any part in the new venture while Katzenberg
runs DreamWorks Animation Studios, a publicly owned company that is
separate from Paramount.
USA
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