Tagged With: Dreamworks

Dreamworks Headline News

DreamWorks Animation IPO Gaining Momentum

According to BUSINESS WEEK, DreamWorks has retained investment bankers Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to access the timing and procedure of a potential IPO for its animation unit to help pay off its enormous debt. With SHREK 2 coming out May 19, SHARK TALE slated for Oct. 1, 2004, and the FATHER OF THE PRIDE series debuting this fall, the timing of the IPO couldn't be better.

Dreamworks Headline News

DreamWorks Gets $100M Japanese Investment

Tokyo-based Kadokawa Holdings will invest $100 million in DreamWorks, reports VARIETY. This deal will make the Japanese media corporation 2.83% shareholder in the privately held studio, which was created by Jeffrey Katzenberg, Steven Spielberg and David Geffen in 1994. As part of the investment, Kadokawa will have exclusive distribution rights to DreamWorks films, videos, DVDs and other products in Japan. The deal is similar to ones DreamWorks has with Universal and Korean distribution company Cheil.

Dreamworks Headline News

HP Expands Deal With DreamWorks, Cleans Up Classic at WB

HP has announced an expanded relationship with DreamWorks and a new deal with Warner Bros. to clean up the image quality of Technicolor films in Warner Bros. library.

HP and DreamWorks will team on new technologies for off-site animation rendering and remote collaboration. Built on a technology partnership that began in 2001, the collaboration provides DreamWorks Animation with state-of-the-art technology solutions from HP, which will be used on SHREK 2, SHARK TALE, MADAGASCAR and the NBC computer-animated TV series, FATHER OF THE PRIDE.

Dreamworks Headline News

DreamWorks Animation Getting IPO

By Rick DeMott | Wednesday, February 11, 2004 at 12:00am

DreamWorks' entertainment attorney Skip Brittenham is working with investment banks J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs to initiate an IPO proposal of the entertainment company's animation division, reported VARIETY. The trade publication quotes a source as saying "the likelihood of an IPO at about 60%. But studio execs are 100% committed to trying to make the plan work." It's estimated that the offering would be timed around the premiere of DreamWorks' next animated feature SHARK TALE, which bows in theaters Oct. 1, 2004. Details of whether it would proceed or follow the release are not known.

Dreamworks Headline News

Is DreamWorks Primed for a Pixar-like Move?

There's a report in Tuesday's NEW YORK POST that DreamWorks is "ramping up efforts to spin off its animation unit" as part of a potential sale to Hollywood studios. DreamWorks is reportedly in considerable debt (last year its ranking with rival studios dropped) and loans are coming up payable in a little more than a year. According to analysts, an animation spin-off would allow it to raise the necessary cash to float the losses, "while maintaining an lucrative production agreement," since animation is the only profitable center.

Dreamworks Headline News

Activision Game For Shrek 2; Terminates TDK Deal

Activision has signed agreement with DreamWorks for videogame rights to the upcoming feature film SHREK 2. Activision has terminated its previously announced co-publishing and co-development agreement with TDK Mediactive following Take-Two Interactive Software's acquisition of TDK.

Dreamworks Headline News

Seinfeld Gives DreamWorks a CG Bee

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has resurfaced with a computer-animated feature project set in the anthropomorphized world of bees, BEE MOVIE, to be made at DreamWorks. Imagine a Manhattan-like setting buzzing with bees. That's what hooked DreamWorks principal Steven Spielberg when the two recently huddled at the Hamptons and started discussing animated movie ideas.

Dreamworks Headline News

WGA and IATSE Settle Father’s Pride Writers’ Dispute

The Writers Guild of America West (WGAw) and IATSE (The Animation Guild Local 839) have reached a tentative agreement regarding representation on DreamWorks upcoming animated series FATHER OF THE PRIDE, according to DAILY VARIETY.

Dreamworks Headline News

Sharkslayer Rescheduled Now, Renamed Later

To avoid a direct conflict with Disney/Pixars THE INCREDIBLES on November 5, 2004, DreamWorks has moved up the release of its underwater mob comedy, SHARKSLAYER, to Oct. 1. DreamWorks had originally staked out the Nov. 5 date, until Disney/Pixar laid claim to it as well in a teaser trailer for the Brad Bird film that accompanied FINDING NEMO.

Dreamworks Headline News

Millennium Actress First to Go Fish for DreamWorks

As part of the recent studio trend, DreamWorks SKG has formed a new specialty division, Go Fish Pictures, with MILLENNIUM ACTRESS, the critically acclaimed anime title by Satoshi Kon, as its first release. MILLENNIUM ACTRESS opens September 12, 2003 in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Toronto. INNOCENCE: GHOST IN A SHELL II will follow in the spring of 2004, but there may be more titles in between, including live action.

Dreamworks Headline News

Sinbad Last Traditionally-Drawn Feature at DreamWorks

After the dismal box office performance of SINBAD: LEGEND OF THE SEVEN SEAS ($23.4 M since July 2, 2003), DreamWorks animation head Ann Daly proclaimed in the NEW YORK TIMES that the studio will no longer be making traditionally-drawn features. Co-founder and animation guru Jeffrey Katzenberg added that the 2D art form sadly may be obsolete as a result of changing technology.

November Headline News

Disney, DreamWorks Fight Over 2004 Release Date

They're at it again. Disney announced yesterday that it's releasing the next Pixar film, Brad Bird's THE INCREDIBLES, on November 5, 2004, the same date that DreamWorks had already positioned for the launch of SHARKSLAYER, its very own computer-animated underwater answer to Pixar's FINDING NEMO. So rather than going head-to-head, DreamWorks has decided to find another slot, though the family film traffic is already heavy in November, with POLAR EXPRESS, the CGI reteaming of Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis, bowing on November 19 along with the first SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS theatrical feature.

Dreamworks Headline News

DreamWorks to Render Sharkslayer in Mental Ray

In a further coup for German software giant Mental Images, DreamWorks will utilize its Academy Award-winning mental ray rendering program on the upcoming underwater gangster comedy SHARKSLAYER, due in theaters in 2004.

A direct competitor to Pixar's heralded RenderMan, mental ray now becomes a significant part of DreamWorks' rendering pipeline for SHARKSLAYER, the first computer-animated feature produced entirely at DreamWorks Animation facility in Glendale, Calif. DreamWorks began utilizing mental ray as part of its production process following rigorous tests in 2002.

Show Headline News

NBC Father Of The Pride Roars With Star Talent

NBC and DreamWorks Television have announced their star-studded cast for the upcoming CGI primetime toon, FATHER OF THE PRIDE. Heading up the cast will be John Goodman (ROSEANNE), along with Orlando Jones (EVOLUTION), Emmy-winner Carl Reiner (THE DICK VAN DYKE SHOW) and Cheryl Hines (CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM). The comedy series will chronicle the lives of a pride of white lions that perform in Siegfried & Roy's famous Las Vegas act. The show is set to debut in Fall 2004. Goodman will play Larry, a hard-working lion in the magic act with Hines playing his wife Kate. Reiner will voice Sarmoti, Kates father, who couldn't be more different than Larry. Jones will play Larry's comical best friend Snack, a prankish gopher. CGI versions of Siegfried & Roy will also make appearances in the series. Siegfried & Roy's show is the longest-running act on the Vegas Strip and has sold out every performance for 11 years. Executive producers will be Jonathan Groff (LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN OBRIEN), DreamWorks head Jeffrey Katzenberg, Peter Mehlman (SEINFELD) and Jon Pollack (JUST SHOOT ME). The show will be produced by DreamWorks Television and NBC will retain domestic syndication rights.

Dreamworks Headline News

Marvel Puts Shang Chi In DreamWorks' Hands

New Marvel Comics-derived project THE HANDS OF SHANG CHI has been set at DreamWorks according to VARIETY. DreamWorks' spokesperson confirms that BAND OF BROTHERS writer Bruce McKenna is doing the script to be directed by Woo-ping Yuen, renowned for his choreography on THE MATRIX and CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON films. Set in China, the movie is about a young kung fu mast master who learns his father is the worst criminal in the world and does not want to follow in his footsteps, which makers are calling THE GODFATHER in reverse.

Dreamworks Headline News

DreamWorks & NBC Jump Back Into Primetime Animation

After a hiatus from primetime animation, NBC and DreamWorks are jumping into the genre again with a 13-episode order for a CG animated series, FATHER OF THE PRIDE, from DreamWorks TV about the lives of the family of lions who perform in Siegfried & Roy's Las Vegas magic show, it was reported by THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and confirmed by a DreamWorks spokesman.

Dreamworks Headline News

Katzenberg Greenlights CGI Rock & Roll Dream

DreamWorks has signed David Diamond and David Weissman (THE FAMILY MAN), to write a yet untitled CG animated musical history of rock 'n' roll, it was reported by VARIETY and later confirmed by a DreamWorks spokesperson. Jeffrey Katzenberg and the writers came up with the concept as they worked together on the rewrite of DreamWorks' EVOLUTION. The project was then officially pitched to Katzenberg and DreamWorks' head of development Lance Young. No official release has been issued but the concept involves setting hit songs in rock history into a CGI format.

Dreamworks Headline News

Activision and Dreamworks Sign Exclusive Publishing Deal

Activision, Inc. and DreamWorks SKG have entered into a strategic multi-year, multi-property publishing agreement that grants Activision the exclusive interactive rights to publish games based on DreamWorks' three upcoming CG-animated feature films: SHARKSLAYER, MADAGASCAR and OVER THE HEDGE. Under the terms of the agreement, Activision has acquired the rights to develop and publish games for the console, hand-held and PC platforms.

Dreamworks Headline News

Scholastic And DreamWorks Announce Strategic Alliance

Children's book publisher and distributor Scholastic now has rights to publish all novelizations, coloring and activity books, picture and storybooks based on DreamWorks' next five animated films, which include SHARKSLAYER and a sequel to the 2001 Oscar-winning hit SHREK.

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