There’s no place like home. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg is one step closer to reinstating his independence, as movies produced by his restructured company, DreamWorks, will be distributed by Universal Pictures, the studio that released early works of the director, including “Jaws” and “E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial,” DreamWorks Chairman Stacey Snider announced on Monday.
General Electric Co.’s Universal Studios will distribute approximately
six DreamWorks films per year during the 7 years stipulated in the contract,
which begins in 2009, executives for both companies said. Universal will
release the movies nationally, as well as overseas, in exchange for an 8
percent fee on earnings. However, the studio will not handle the distribution
of DreamWorks’ productions in
Stacey Snider and Steven Spielberg have been trying to find a new distribution studio for their company since DreamWorks and Reliance reached a $1.2 billion-plus deal last month. The movie executives chose a partnership with Universal over the weekend, although they had also received an offer from the Walt Disney Company, the New York Times reported. Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider appear to have preferred the wellbeing of informality.
“Universal has always been my home base so this agreement starts a new chapter in what has been a long and successful association,” Steven Spielberg explained in a news release. “While it feels great to come home again, it feels like I never left.”
And the door seems to have been dearly opened for the two. “I really feel like it is a homecoming for Steven and Stacey,” said Marc Shmuger, Universal Pictures chairman.
In spite of the fact that DreamWorks still has dozens of
projects to complete with its former partner, Paramount Pictures, Universal
could contribute to the films’ domestic distribution. DreamWorks movies that
have already been finished or whose progress nears completion, such as “The
Soloist,” “The Lovely Bones” and the “Transformers” sequel, will be distributed
by
Steven Spielberg has served as a director for Universal until he co-founded DreamWorks SKG along with record executive David Geffen and former Disney Studios chief Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994. Universal nonetheless released films by DreamWorks and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc., which became Jeffrey Katzenberg’s public company in 2004. The partnership with Universal ended in 2006, as Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures took over DreamWorks and started to handle the distribution of its productions.
Stacey Snider, who was also chairwoman of Universal Pictures, will continue to be in control at DreamWorks, where she became chief executive officer approximately two years ago.
Although David Geffen also discussed the deal and helped conduct the company’s development, he will not join the reorganized DreamWorks. Steven Spielberg explained that he had known for more than a year that David Geffen would not stick to the new company. According to the New York Times, Mr. Spielberg said on Monday that he did not want for the initials “SKG,” which are part of the company’s full name, to be changed, despite the fact that Mr. Geffen chose to leave.
Jeffrey Katzenberg’s DreamWorks Animation productions,
however, will not be affected by any means by the changes, as the company’s
distribution contract with