DreamWorks and Paramount have a messy breakup

For quite a while now, DreamWorks has been due for some change. Its relationship with distributor Paramount had gone from shaky, to rocky, to in dire need of a life raft. Due to this tension, it was no surprise that as its contract with Paramount ended the company looked elsewhere to produce its films. Reliance, a company based mostly out of India, is helping to fund a stand-alone production company for DreamWorks.

The surprise that came was how much Paramount seems to have wanted to sever ties, or at least how much it wanted to vindictively sever ties after DreamWorks spurned the company. While Paramount gave a statement to Yahoo News saying, "To facilitate a timely and smooth transition, Paramount has waived certain provisions from the original deal to clear the way for the DreamWorks principals and their employees to join their new company without delay," this does little to change what actually happened. No DreamWorks employees were kept by Paramount, which is not quite a mass layoff, but certainly a cause for alarm to all employees whose jobs are now in jeopardy.

Also thrust into turmoil by this deal are any projects DreamWorks had been working on before the split happened. Perhaps most importantly, this includes Steven Spielberg's own planned films such as Lincoln, The Trial of the Chicago 7 and The 39 Clues.  A caveat to this is that if Paramount does decide to move forward with production, it will have to pay 7.5 percent of any picture's gross to DreamWorks. It's anyone's guess whether Paramount will agree to this, but if not then it likely means the projects are dead in the water.

With all of this bad news, though, comes word that the previously balked at Tintin project will get made. Paramount had said no to Spielberg and Peter Jackson because the two directors demanded a hefty 30% back end on the deal, but now they're willing to fully finance the film for $130 million. All in all, this makes for one big, confusing day for Spielberg. The long-term effects of these changes are hard to gauge, but with any luck Spielberg can negotiate back some of his old projects and also help DreamWorks to become the full-fledged studio it was founded to be.

Related links:
News: Aaron Sorkin signs deal with Dreamworks
News: Steven Spielberg casts Sacha Baron Cohen in Chicago Seven
Dreamworks.com
News: Paul Greengrass taking over for Spielberg on Chicago Seven

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