Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks SKG
Late last month, DreamWorks, the boutique movie studio that Mr. Spielberg co-founded in 1994, let it be known that it had found a way to exit its unhappy three-year marriage with Paramount Pictures. Reliance ADA Group, a Mumbai conglomerate, was nearing a deal to give the dream workers $550 million to form a new movie company.
That Mr. Spielberg and his business partner David Geffen had found an investor wasn’t surprising. Mr. Spielberg is a superstar. DreamWorks had made it clear for months — via public comments and private grousing fed into the Hollywood grapevine — that they hated being part of Paramount and were going elsewhere as soon as it was contractually allowed.
But there was still an element of shock: Hollywood could not come up with a rich enough deal for Mr. Spielberg, the most bankable director in the business and a “national treasure� His last movie alone, “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,†has sold $743 million in tickets and is still playing in theaters around the world.
For that matter, there wasn’t anybody on Wall Street willing to write a blank check for the guy with “Jaws†and “Jurassic Park†on his résumé?
Read the full story on The New York Times site.
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