In Your Dreams

The Los Angeles Times reports that Paramount Pictures is close to making a deal to buy DreamWorks. Founded in 1994 by industry giants Steven Spielberg, Jeffery Katzenberg, and David Geffen, the production company had been expected to become part of the NBC/Universal group--considering that they had been trying to buy the indie studio for the past six months. It seems that Paramount came out of nowhere offering a 1-billion-plus deal that's all but signed.

As an industry watcher, film school graduate, and all around movie guy, I don't see the deal really helping or hurting Paramount. DreamWorks is a shadow of what its hype promised (see article). And with its acquisition Paramount has nothing to lose---the studio, like DreamWorks, has seen better days. The studio's theatrical "hits" have been too few over the last few years, its most lucrative "cash cow", known as Star Trek is now on hiatus, after both TV and film series failed to generate much excitement of late, and the TV division has only a few successes to its credit.

It will be interesting to see what this sale ultimately does for Paramount, in the long run for now, I say "not much".