Steven Spielberg And The Search For DreamWorks' One Billion Emancipating Dollars
Like a temple of dormant extraterrestrial beings that accidentally took up residence in a South American jungle, the Steven Spielberg-led DreamWorks braintrust has restlessly been awaiting the arrival of a mystical object that will restore their autonomous movie-making powers and release them from the confines of a production-temple deep buried beneath the Paramount lot. In this case, that mystical object is a cool billion:
Steven Spielberg aims to raise more than $1 billion in third-party financing to reinvent DreamWorks as a separate company that once again owns the movies it makes.
As for distribution, Spielberg wants to bolt his roost at Paramount for Universal, which wants to land Spielberg and DreamWorks after losing out to Paramount in that quest a couple years ago. But on recommendation from his advisers, Spielberg has allowed a bidding war to begin among studios for the rights to distribute future DreamWorks movies.
The chief suitors other than Paramount: Universal, Disney and Fox.
Raising $1 billion of other people's money is certainly more conceivable than spending $25 billion of your own—what Spielberg would have to spend to buy Universal outright, as the LAT once suggested he secretly fantasizes about doing. Whatever happens, this protracted divorce has gone on long enough, and we just pray some sort of closure is achieved before things turn all Sheen vs. Richards, and psycho/vengeful/clingy Paramount starts demanding a DreamWorks sperm-donation in the form of a verbal commitment for distribution rights to Kung Fu Panda 2.
