DreamWorks set for $825M in financing via Reliance, banks, Disney (SCR, DHD)

By R. Kinsey Lowe

DreamWorks Studios has finally sewn up $825 million in initial post-Paramount financing arrangements from India's Reliance ADA Group, its distribution deal with Disney and a bank syndication, according to reports on Screen and Deadline Hollywood Daily web sites. Reliance said the deal is expected to close shortly.

The dollar amount was affirmed Wednesday in a New York meeting with DreamWorks chiefs Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider, Screen said, and Reliance ADA Group chairman Anil Ambani.

Ahead of the deal's resolution, Reliance has mounted spin control and PR maneuvers in New York, DHD reported, in hopes of maximizing favorable publicity because the deal has taken months to put together after seeming to be a sure thing when the arrangement was initially announced.

After DreamWorks' bitter rupture and split from Paramount, the company landed a distribution deal with Disney but encountered unexpected difficulty in raising separate financing to match Reliance's proposed share.

Initial funding includes $325 million from the banks, matched by $325 million in equity from Reliance and $175 million from Disney, which became DreamWorks distribution partner in February.

If DreamWorks raises more money from its banks, Reliance's matching contribution could rise to $550 million.

Once the financing is secured, DreamWorks plans to make five or six movies a year, with the first to go into production this year for release in 2010.The company's development slate includes "39 Clues," a family adventure based on the Scholastic books; "Cowboys and Aliens," an action picture cofinanced by Universal; "Dinner for Schmucks" � based on the French "The Dinner Game" and directed by Jay Roach and produced by Paramount, DreamWorks and Spyglass Entertainment; "Motorcade," about a presidential kidnapping to be directed by Len Wiseman; and "Hereafter," a supernatural drama written by Peter Morgan ("Frost/Nixon," "The Queen") and produced by Kathleen Kennedy and Clint Eastwood's Malpaso Prods.