AMERICAS 
Director Spielberg quits Paramount
Monday, 6 October, 2008
Steven Spielberg (Getty)
Legendary Hollywood director Steven Spielberg is to leave Paramount Pictures and set up a new film-making firm with the world's sixth richest man, Indian industrialist Anil Ambani.
Spielberg, the man behind box office hits Jaws, ET, Jurassic Park and the Indiana Jones franchise, will be CEO of the new joint venture with India's Reliance ADA Group.
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The company will make up to 35 movies over the next five years, beginning in January.
Spielberg, the highest -grossing film director of all time, will continue to produce the Transformers franchise for Paramount.
He will also collaborate on three other Paramount movies, including the science-fiction remake When Worlds Collide.
The deal was finalized by David Geffen, co-founder with Spielberg of the Dreamworks film studio, and Reliance's billionaire boss Anil Ambani.
Geffen will not be joining the new company, but the majority of existing Dreamworks staff is expected to be offered positions there, according to a statement from Paramount.
World's sixth richest man
Current Dreamworks chief executive Stacey Snider, who was chairman of Universal Studios until 2006, will head the new venture.
The JPMorgan Chase bank will provide up to $US700 million to finance the deal, with Reliance providing an additional $US550 dollars, the Times of India reports.
Paramount will have the option to co-finance and co-distribute feature films made by the new venture, it said.
The deal will cement 49-year-old Ambani's status as an international force in movie financing, and raise his Mumbai-based telecommunications-to-energy group's global profile.
Ambani, ranked the world's sixth richest man by Forbes magazine, has been steadily building an entertainment presence after a highly publicised break-up with his elder brother Mukesh in 2005, in which the two carved up the Reliance empire.
In 2005, the group bought Adlabs Films, one of India's biggest entertainment companies, whose interests span film production to digital cinema. It also recently acquired 250 screens in the United States and 51screens in Malaysia.
Source: SBS staff and agencies
Spielberg, the man behind box office hits Jaws, ET, Jurassic Park and the Indiana Jones franchise, will be CEO of the new joint venture with India's Reliance ADA Group.
Click here for more arts and entertainment stories
The company will make up to 35 movies over the next five years, beginning in January.
Spielberg, the highest -grossing film director of all time, will continue to produce the Transformers franchise for Paramount.
He will also collaborate on three other Paramount movies, including the science-fiction remake When Worlds Collide.
The deal was finalized by David Geffen, co-founder with Spielberg of the Dreamworks film studio, and Reliance's billionaire boss Anil Ambani.
Geffen will not be joining the new company, but the majority of existing Dreamworks staff is expected to be offered positions there, according to a statement from Paramount.
World's sixth richest man
Current Dreamworks chief executive Stacey Snider, who was chairman of Universal Studios until 2006, will head the new venture.
The JPMorgan Chase bank will provide up to $US700 million to finance the deal, with Reliance providing an additional $US550 dollars, the Times of India reports.
Paramount will have the option to co-finance and co-distribute feature films made by the new venture, it said.
The deal will cement 49-year-old Ambani's status as an international force in movie financing, and raise his Mumbai-based telecommunications-to-energy group's global profile.
Ambani, ranked the world's sixth richest man by Forbes magazine, has been steadily building an entertainment presence after a highly publicised break-up with his elder brother Mukesh in 2005, in which the two carved up the Reliance empire.
In 2005, the group bought Adlabs Films, one of India's biggest entertainment companies, whose interests span film production to digital cinema. It also recently acquired 250 screens in the United States and 51screens in Malaysia.
Source: SBS staff and agencies
