One of the most dependably profitable filmmakers in history has credit problems too.
Two days after the finalizing the extraction of his Dreamworks baby from Paramount, Steven Spielberg has put the brakes on going to Wall Street for a bank loan- at least until everybody over there calms the hell down.
While the born-again studio has already secured $550 million from India’s Reliance Big Entertainment to cover initial startup and operating costs, if Spielberg’s gonna make this dream of owning the movies he makes re-come true, he needs a line of credit just like every other startup business in the U.S. As everybody above ground knows, you need a boat to visit Wall Street right now.
THR reported here that Dreamworks’ principal bank JP Morgan is in for $125 million and will chase further lenders in January. They’ll also try to put together about a $650 million dollar loan syndication (that’s when they spread it out across a bunch of banks to lessen the risk) for the box office rainmaker, whose latest sit in the director’s chair, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, has cleared $780 million worldwide.
Paramount made its own show of faith in Spielberg when it picked up the entire $130 million TinTin tab after Universal bailed. It’s possible that Spielberg and Dreamworks CEO Stacy Snider will be thinking of that when they talk to Disney this week about distributing Dreamworks’ films, which would include Lincoln (to which Liam Neeson is still rumored to be attached), The Trial of the Chicago 7, and The 39 Clues, along with 15 or so other properties DW got in the divorce from Paramount. Universal has been the frontrunner for DW’s domestic distrib up until now, but according to THR some at Dreamworks feel like Disney’s roster “might offer less thematic overlap with DW’s intended slate and thus pose less potential for conflict over key release dates.”
Look for Dreamworks to pick its dance partner in the next week.
