The legendary Hollywood filmmaker and leading Indian business tycoon, Steven Spielberg and Anil Ambani respectively, along with Jeff Skoll of Participant Media and Darren Throop of Entertainment One collate to form the joint venture, Amblin Partners – a new film, television and digital content creation company.
Amblin Partners has a mandate to develop and produce films using Amblin, DreamWorks Pictures and Participant banners as well as Amblin Television, a long-time leader in quality programming.
DreamWorks, which has struggled financially since its last relaunch in 2009, has raised more than $800 million of equity and debt, as Participant Media will be putting in about $200 million whereas India’s Reliance Entertainment, the major backer of DreamWorks’ previous incarnation, global distributor Entertainment One and Spielberg himself invest $100 million. J.P. Morgan Chase arranged a $500 million debt facility for the venture, which will aim to produce between four and seven movies a year, along with television shows and digital content.
Spielberg, announcing the joint venture, said, “We are honoured to continue our long-term association with our dear friend, Anil Ambani and his team at Reliance. We have had the opportunity to develop and produce wonderful films, thanks to their ongoing support.”
Anil Ambani said, “We are delighted to continue our now seven-year-strong relationship with our valued partner, Steven Spielberg and extend this alliance to the formation of Amblin Partners with Jeff Skoll. We look forward to the combination of Steven’s passion and integrity with Jeff’s unique socially-conscious vision to create uplifting and quality content to entertain global audiences.”
In addition, Amblin has signed a five-year distribution deal with Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures to release its films. Spielberg has a 40-plus year relationship with Universal dating to 1974’s The Sugarland Express. “The same magnet that pulled me to Universal when I first wanted to make movies is bringing me home again to this new exciting relationship,” Spielberg said in the statement. “It is my hope that we can make some more beautiful music together.”
Amblin Partners will release family friendly movies with the Amblin brand, adult fare under the DreamWorks label and films with a social-justice element under the Participant label.
Amblin Partners’ film projects are at various stages of production that include The BFG, The Light Between Oceans which are scheduled for release by Disney in 2016, The Girl on the Train, (October 2016), A Dog’s Purpose (first quarter of 2017) and Ready Player One, a co-production between Amblin Partners and Warner Bros Pictures, which is scheduled to be released in December of 2017.
Upcoming shows from Amblin TV include All the Way, an HBO movie directed by Jay Roach and starring Bryan Cranston, with an air date to be announced shortly.
