DreamWorks vs. DreamWorks?
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
This may prove interesting. As reported in the Wall Street Journal, Animation World Network and elsewhere this week, DreamWorks and Indian media company Reliance have inked a deal to create a new $1.2 billion studio.
Like many in the animation industry, I did a double-take, since DreamWorks Animation’s partnership with Thomson Technicolor at Indian animation studio Paprikas is already well-known. So, another DW studio in India?
The distinction is that the deal just announced is between Reliance and DreamWorks Pictures. DreamWorks Animation spun off into its own publicly-traded company in 2004 (with animated films distributed by Paramount, but fully independent). Live-action “studio” DreamWorks Pictures was purchased by Viacom (parent company of Paramount) in 2006, and there’s been no love lost between the DW players and the Paramount folks since that time.
So, here’s the billion-dollar question: will the new DreamWorks/Reliance studio distribute animated films created by DreamWorks Animation at Paprikas? Or will the new studio create its own animation division that will in effect compete with Paprikas - pitting “DreamWorks against DreamWorks”?
Time will tell… or perhaps a commentator will below. 
