Steven Spielberg Reunites With Universal Pictures for Lucrative DreamWorks Deal

Steven Spielberg’s struggling DreamWorks Studios has a new lease on life and a new name.

Steven Spielberg, who broke into Hollywood as an intern then a director at Universal, where he helmed films such as “Jaws”, “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, will be returning to the studio under a series of partnerships announced Wednesday.

The new company, a partnership of Skoll’s Participant, Spielberg’s DreamWorks, eOne and Reliance, will release more adult fare – in the vein of this season’s awards contender, Bridge of Spies – through the DreamWorks label, while family fare will go through Spielberg’s long-standing production label, Amblin. It also has a $ 500 million debt facility arranged by J.P. Morgan Chase. The company has largely been in stasis while waiting to raise its new financing.

Back in September, we reported that Steven Spielberg would most likely be setting up a new distribution deal with Universal once once he was done with The BFG (which will be distributed by Disney).

The deal will see seven films hit theaters per year, beginning October 7, 2016 with Emily Blunt and Justin Theroux’s “The Girl on the Train”.

Participant, the companies said in a statement, will continue to develop, produce and finance issues-based projects separately from the Amblin venture. Amblin has the HBO adaptation of Bryan Cranston’s “All the Way” coming next year, along with another CBS drama “American Gothic”.

Participant Media is a leading media company dedicated to entertainment that inspires and compels social change. Participant’s more than 70 films, including “Spotlight”, “Contagion”, “Lincoln”, “The Help”, “He Named Me Malala”, “The Look of Silence”, “CITIZENFOUR”, “Food, Inc.”, and “An Inconvenient Truth”, have collectively earned 37 Academy Award® nominations and eight wins.

Reliance Entertainment is the media and entertainment arm of Reliance Group, and is engaged in the creation and distribution of content across film, television, digital and gaming platforms. His subsequent film, Ready Player One, will be a co-production of Amblin and Warner Bros.

Amblin Television will now become a division of Amblin Partners.