Reliance, Spielberg in talks over $2 bn movie venture

A A

Associated Press :Mumbai, June 24: , Jun 24 2008, 13:14 IST

Tags:

India's Reliance Entertainment and other investors are in talks with Hollywood's DreamWorks SKG to form a new movie venture worth as much as US$2 billion, two people familiar with negotiations said Tuesday.

Dreamworks, the movie studio founded in 1994 by Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg, is looking to raise a total of US$2 billion from investors - US$1 billion in equity and another US$1 billion for new movie projects, the two people with knowledge of the talks said.

They said they could not be named because negotiations were ongoing.

There are four to five other parties involved in the talks, including Universal Pictures, one of the individuals said.

Reliance Entertainment, the media arm of one of India's top conglomerates, the Reliance ADA Group, plans to invest more than US$500 million to US$600 million in equity, that same person said.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that DreamWorks SKG is trying to raise about US$1 billion to break from Viacom and its movie studio, Paramount Pictures.

Viacom bought DreamWorks SKG in 2006 for US$1.6 billion, but the relationship has declined despite hits such as "Transformers" and "Dreamgirls."

Ads by Google