In a press release issued today it was announced Walt Disney Studios has agreed to enter into an exclusive long-term distribution arrangement with filmmaker and DreamWorks Studios co-founder Steven Spielberg, and partner Stacey Snider, chief executive officer of DreamWorks, to distribute all upcoming live-action motion pictures produced by DreamWorks under their partnership with Reliance BIG Entertainment. The deal comes about after things fell apart between DreamWorks and Universal, which all started after DreamWorks left Paramount.

Under the terms of this new arrangement, Disney will handle distribution and marketing for approximately six DreamWorks films each year. The first DreamWorks motion picture to be released under the Touchstone Pictures banner is scheduled to hit theaters in 2010.

The move should aid Touchstone Pictures, which had a lackluster 2008 with such films as Miracle at St. Anna and Swing Vote. The actual first film that will be released under the new deal is unknown as most of the high profile titles already in production at DreamWorks are likely to stay at Paramount including the Transformers franchise, but maybe now Spielberg will be more aggressive in getting his Lincoln feature off the ground. One can only hope.

Related post categories: Studio Dealings : DreamWorks Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures

Permalink   |   RSS Feed | 2 comments so far