DREAMWORKS - DREAMWORKS COMPLETES DEAL WITH DISNEY

DREAMWORKS COMPLETES DEAL WITH DISNEY

DreamWorks fittingly will become part of the enterprise that promoted wishing upon a star. The company headed by Steven Spielberg and the Walt Disney Co. said that they had signed a distribution deal similar to the one Disney had with Pixar before it bought the digital animation company. Word leaked over the weekend that DreamWorks' deal with Universal had come apart and that DreamWorks executives were returning to the negotiating table with Disney. Ties between DreamWorks and Universal were apparently not cut completely, however; today's (Tuesday) Daily Variety reported that DreamWorks will continue using the Universal lot as its production base. Precise terms of the deal were not disclosed, and Disney Studios Chairman Dick Cook said that reports that Disney will earn at least an 8 percent fee off the grosses of DreamWorks films and will lend the company $150 million were not "entirely accurate. ... That was from some old proposals or old deals along the way," he told Reuters. Confusing matters for the general public is that DreamWorks Animation is not included in the deal. Its films, which will compete directly with Disney's animated fare, will continue to be distributed by Paramount.

10/02/2009