Spielberg free to go

After some anticipation and vicissitude, Steven Spielberg is packing up his DreamWorks and relocating from his recent Paramount home.

Spielberg has made a deal with Reliance for a considerable figure (anywhere from a half billion to just over one), to venture off and create a new stand-alone production company. Paramount waived some provisions of their original DreamWorks agreement to assist them in finding the gate to the lot with all alacrity (they are, however, sitting on Spielberg’s passion projects like LINCOLN and CHICAGO 7).

DreamWorks will now seek a distribution deal with another studio, and while Universal seemed a likely candidate, the LA Times today said that studio opted not to finance Spielberg and Peter Jackson’s planned computer-animated TINTIN, which carried a risky $130 million price tag. Paramount was handling half the budget, and that obviously ain’t happening now either, so their pet project may have to wait.