MUMBAI – DreamWorks Studios has at last secured the financing it needs to get its production slate up and running.
Partners in the new venture, Steven Spielberg, Stacey Snider and Indian billionaire Anil Ambani announced Wednesday night that the studio will have $825 million of initial funding.
DreamWorks will have a four-person board consisting of Spielberg, Snider, Reliance’s Amitabh Jhunjhunwala and Alan Levine, entertainment advisor to JPMorgan and former CEO of Sony Pictures.
While the new company has been quietly functional since November last year it can only now move some of its properties off the development drawing board and into production. “This venture with Reliance opens a new door to our future,” said Spielberg.
“With this financing, DreamWorks will eventually make 5-6 films per year,” the partners said in a statement issued after a meeting in New York. “DreamWorks anticipates starting its first film for the new studio later this year. They have been actively acquiring properties and developing projects for release in 2010.”
As has been previously anticipated, the initial phase of funding will include an equity investment from Ambani’s Reliance ADA Group, debt financing from a syndication of banks, as well as funding from Disney.
According to Indian sources the final permutation sees Reliance ADAG provide $325 million, while the Disney component is worth $150 million.
Under the terms of a deal signed earlier this year with The Walt Disney Company, Disney will handle marketing and distribution of the studio’s films around the world, except for India where Reliance subsidiary Reliance BIG Entertainment will retain distribution rights.
“We are delighted to partner with such uniquely talented individuals as Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider. Ever since we looked at their business plan, I have never doubted that we would succeed in providing them with the financial muscle required to realize their dreams,” said Ambani.
DreamWorks has developed some properties on its own and acquired others from Paramount, but the fledgling studio is currently unable to say which picture will get the first green-light.
Current projects include sci-fi comic book adaptation “Cowboys And Aliens” co-financed with Universal, “Dinner With Schmucks,” director Jay Roach’s remake of French film “The Dinner Game” and action caper “Motorcade” by director Len Wiseman and supernatural drama “Hereafter” from screenwriter Peter Morgan.
Reliance BIG Entertainment last year announced a string of ‘development silos’ with A-list Hollywood talent including Nicolas Cage’s Saturn Productions, Jim Carrey’s JC 23 Entertainment, George Clooney’s Smokehouse Productions, Chris Columbus’ 1492 Pictures, Tom Hank’s Playtone Productions, Brad Pitt’s Plan B Entertainment, Jay Roach’s Everyman Pictures Brett Ratner’s Rat Entertainment and Julia Roberts’ Red Om Films.
Asked whether DreamWorks will take over these production deals, Ambani was quoted as saying “these decisions depend on whether DreamWorks finds any merit in them.”
Spielberg’s Indian connections began in 1977 when he shot some scenes of “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” near Mumbai. He returned for a personal visit in 1978 and said that he is “looking forward to coming to India later this year. I will urge Anil Ambani to introduce me to the writers and directors of the Indian film industry. For our projects, I will not exclude or preclude any story idea either set in India or otherwise. The stories should have the potential for a global audience.”
[Source] THR
