Director Steven Spielberg has formally quit Paramount Pictures to launch a brand new film venture.

Spielberg, director of such legendary works as Jaws, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, ET: The Extraterrestrial and the Indiana Jones franchise, will hold a CEO position in the new venture alongside current Dreamworks CEO and co-chairman Stacey Snider.

The deal was finalised by David Geffen, co-founder with Spielberg of the Dreamworks film studio, and Reliance CEO Anil Ambani, ranked the world’s sixth richest man in 2008 by Forbes magazine.

Geffen will not be joining the new company, but the majority of existing Dreamworks staff are expected to be offered positions at the new company.

The legendary moviemaker will reportedly produce 35 movies in the next five years as part of the forthcoming multi-billion deal with India’s Reliance ADA Group.

Paramount will have the option to co-finance and co-distribute feature films made by the new venture.

Spielberg will also stay at the helm of the Transformers franchise for Paramount, and will collaborate on three other movies for the Hollywood giant, including the science-fiction remake of When Worlds Collide - slated for a 2010 release.
Both parties say the split is amicable. Paramount Pictures CEO Brad Grey says, “We have had a great run with the DreamWorks team both creatively and financially.
“In particular, it has been a true honor working closely with a storyteller of Steven’s talent and stature.” Spielberg says he had “enjoyed a productive creative and business collaboration” with Paramount and spoke of “extending the relationship for many years to come.”
Despite all the amiable words, the motivation for this move was that Speilberg wanted the studio he helped build, Dreamworks, to once again be fully independent and own the films it puts out. However he needed $1 billion in third-party financing to make that dream a reality hence this new marriage. At Paramount, Spielberg essentially was a producer and director of films owned by others so leaving the studio was the only way to allow the uber-director to stake actual ownership claim to his future films.

Source
http://www.hotmommagossip.com/2008/10/06/steven-spielberg-has-formally-o...