Universal & Warner Bros. to MERGE??

Based on rumors....but still very interesting.....

When Time Warner (TWX) CEO Jeff Bewkes said on the company's post-earnings conference call three weeks ago that they'd be announcing details on their spinoff of its cable division "very soon," he meant it.

DreamWorks has finalized the deal.

DreamWorks is free at last, but its emancipation from Paramount Pictures may come at a price.

As principals David Geffen, Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider closed a deal with India-based Reliance to create a stand-alone production company and end its unhappy three-year union with the Melrose studio, the wrangling over assets is ugly, even by Hollywood standards.

In a surprise move, Paramount waived its right to keep any DreamWorks execs or DreamWorks-based producers in its fold. But the studio is playing hardball and is laying claim to DreamWorks' entire development slate, including such Spielberg passion projects as "Lincoln," "The Trial of the Chicago 7" and "The 39 Clues."

A source familiar with the inner workings of the split said DreamWorks seemed surprised and confused by Paramount's play.

In short, Paramount is giving up everything that costs money and is keeping everything that has already been paid for -- a shrewd business move by Paramount chief Brad Grey that is certain to exacerbate ongoing bitterness between the two camps.

However, if Paramount moves forward with any films that Spielberg is attached to direct or produce, it will have to to pay the DreamWorks principal some 7.5 percent of the gross - a costly proposition for Paramount.

Also caught in the middle of the divorce is Spielberg and Peter Jackson's "Tintin." Before the Reliance deal closed, DreamWorks approached Universal, which had an option on the foreign rights, to co-finance the 3-D adaptation of the Belgian comic classic at a negative cost of $130 million, but the studio balked at that price point because the two filmmakers command as much as 30% of the back-end gross.

But in another twist in the Paramount-DreamWorks play-by-play, Paramount made an unexpected proposal Thursday to the filmmakers to fully finance the film for $130 million. They are waiting for Spielberg and Jackson's response. The move served as a reminder to the departing Spielberg that the new DreamWorks will still be dependent on studio largesse when it comes to financing big-budget tentpoles.

Though the Reliance deal, which is valued at $500 million (an additional $700 million is still being raised via bank financing), has been anticipated for some time, what had been unclear was the fate of DreamWorks' executives and producers, who would have been contractually obligated to remain with Paramount. DreamWorks' producers include Parkes/MacDonald, Ben Stiller's Red Hour and Montecito Pictures.

DreamWorks, which declined comment, must now decide the fate of its employees, including prexy of production Adam Goodman, who has 18 months left on his contract. It is unlikely he will segue to the new venture in his current capacity. In fact, DreamWorks will be hard-pressed to keep its current roster intact given that it will be working under a tighter budget. Prior to DreamWorks' exit, Paramount was paying $50 million a year in overhead for DreamWorks, according to sources.

"We congratulate Steven, David and Stacey, and wish them well as they start their newest venture," Paramount said in a statement. "Steven is one of the world's great story-tellers and a legend in the motion picture business. It has been an honor working closely with him and the DreamWorks team over the last three years, and we expect to continue our successful collaboration with Steven in the future."

Though the statement seemed congenial on the surface, the two camps have been at odds since DreamWorks sold to Paramount parent company Viacom for $1.6 billion in 2006. At the time, analysts thought Viacom had overpaid for the mini-major. But it soon became clear that Grey had brokered a better deal than anyone had anticipated. For famed dealmaker Geffen, seller's remorse set in quickly. Spielberg and Snider thought they were a satellite company working alongside Paramount -- even serviced by the studio on some level. But Grey made it clear that he considered DreamWorks to be not a sibling company but one of several labels answering to him, like MTV or Paramount Vantage. Furthermore, Spielberg took issue with the fact that he was not paid a salary for the day-to-day running of DreamWorks.

The next step for DreamWorks is to land a major studio distributor. DreamWorks can now commence official talks on a distribution deal. Universal - a previous DreamWorks distribution partner for a decade -- remains the most likely candidate, but according to Uni sources, no talks have begun. Even before the Reliance deal closed, Paramount had already removed itself from the running. Paramount sources said the studio wasn't interested in inking a distribution pact with the new company and is high on its upcoming slate, which includes J.J. Abrams' "Star Trek," "G.I. Joe," "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" and a Marvel "Iron Man" sequel.

Sources at DreamWorks say that any distribution deal is at least weeks away.

just do it

Question: What life lessons did you learn as a little boy that still serve as a strong source of inspiration for you even now?

Woody Allen: I think that the biggest life lesson I learned as a boy that has helped me and is still with me is that you really have to discipline yourself to do the work. If you want to accomplish something you can't spend a lot of time hemming and hawing, putting it off, making excuses for yourself, and figuring ways. You have to actually do it. I have to go home every single day, know where I am, what I'm doing, and including 45 minutes of practice on my Clarinet because I want to play. I have to do it, I want to write, so I get up in the morning, go in and close the door and write.

You can't string paper clips, and get your pad ready, and turn your phone off, and get this, get coffee made. You have to do the stuff. Everything in life turns out to be a distraction from the real thing you want to do. There are a million distractions and when I was a kid I was very disciplined. I knew that the other kids weren't. I was the one able to do the thing, not because I had more talent, maybe less, but because they simply weren't applying themselves. As a kid I wanted to do magic tricks. I could sit endlessly in front of mirror, practicing, practicing, because I knew if you wanted to do the tricks you've got to do the thing.

I did that with the Clarinet, when I was teaching, I did that with writing. This is the most important thing in my life because I see people striking out all the time. It's not because they don't have talent, or because they don't want to be, but because they don't put the work in to do it. They don't have the discipline to do it. This was something I learned myself. I also had a very strict mother who was no nonsense about that stuff. She said 'If you don't do it, then you aren't going to be able to do the thing.' It's as simple as that. I said this to my daughter, if you don't practice the guitar, when you get older you wouldn't be able to play it. It's that simple.

If you want to play the guitar, you put a half hour in everyday, but you have to do it. This has been the biggest guiding principle in my life when I was younger and it stuck. I made the statement that 80 percent of life is showing up. People used to always say to me that they wanted to write a novel, and the couple of people that did it were 80 percent of the way to having something happen. All the other people struck out without ever getting that pack. They couldn't do it, so once you do it, you write your script, or novel, you are more than half way towards something good happening. What I am saying is that it's a life lesson.

http://www.darkhorizons.com/interviews/woodyvcb.php

So You Want to be a Producer?

Larry on KCRW's The Business. I heard this a few years ago, our education in an hour. 

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Pics from yesterday's 507 lighting experiment

These were forwarded on to me from our SA from today's 507. AWag said that I should definitely get em into the hands of our class so we could marvel at how good we look both behind and in front of the camera.

Twister looks like he's preppin to be McCain's running mate.

Victor looks a bad-a cross between Jeff Goldblum and Chigurh.

Gordon just exited the Stark Orientation and realized there
aren't any cute guys in the 2010 class.

Tracey was in my group so I can't hate.

And this Emily shot...well what can you say...I freaking love this Emily shot!

Indiana Jones and the City of the Gods

Here is the initial script - the one I was having trouble attaching.

George Loves Aliens!

Go See TELL NO ONE (French Indy Film). It's AMAZING.

Just saw this movie (TELL NO ONE) , and I HIGHLY recommend you all RUN to see it. Great film--its French. And its the indy type we need to be supporting so the indy world can live on. Check it out.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ne_le_dis_a_personne/