'Pushing Daisies' was honored with an award from the Casting Society of America, winning an Artios Awards, the Hollywood Reporter says || James Cromwell, who played Zefram Cochrane in 1996's 'Star Trek: First Contact,' broke his collarbone in a fall off his bicycle last weekend, Yahoo! News reports. He's expected to fully recover. || ABC's 'Lost' will return to Wednesday nights starting Jan. 21. A clip show will run at 8 followed by a two-hour premiere. || All of the Star Trek movies could be coming to Blu-Ray as early as next year, Digital Bits says. Paramount had supported HD-DVD, but has conceded defeat to Blu-Ray, and is now moving to the format || SciFi Channel's 'Warehouse 13' has completed its creative staff with the likes of Jack Kenny, David Simkins, Drew Greenberg, Stephen Scaia, and others || 'Pushing Daisies' was honored with an award from the Casting Society of America, winning an Artios Awards, the Hollywood Reporter says || James Cromwell, who played Zefram Cochrane in 1996's 'Star Trek: First Contact,' broke his collarbone in a fall off his bicycle last weekend, Yahoo! News reports. He's expected to fully recover. || ABC's 'Lost' will return to Wednesday nights starting Jan. 21. A clip show will run at 8 followed by a two-hour premiere. || All of the Star Trek movies could be coming to Blu-Ray as early as next year, Digital Bits says. Paramount had supported HD-DVD, but has conceded defeat to Blu-Ray, and is now moving to the format || SciFi Channel's 'Warehouse 13' has completed its creative staff with the likes of Jack Kenny, David Simkins, Drew Greenberg, Stephen Scaia, and others ||

Spielberg Leaves DreamWorks, Forms New Studio

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By MICHAEL HINMAN
Source: Reuters
Oct-07-2008

Director Steven Spielberg sort of deformalized his relationship with Paramount Pictures Monday, breaking away from his co-created DreamWorks and embarking on a new studio venture that will include a business partnership with Paramount.

Spielberg will join with Reliance ADA Group of India to start a new production company that will take the lead on about 15 to 20 DreamWorks projects, offering Paramount the opportunity to co-finance and co-distribute, Reuters reported.

At the same time, Paramount itself will take on 15 to 20 other projects under development at DreamWorks, which Spielberg's new company will have a similar option to co-finance and co-distribute. However, Spielberg is seeking out a new distribution partner, which could end up being the motion picture department of NBC Universal.

The move is not expected to affect the Transformers movie franchise, which will remain under the Paramount banner, nor Spielberg's upcoming project, "When Worlds Collide."

"We had a great run with the DreamWorks team both creatively and financially," Brad Gray, chief executive of Paramount, said. "In particular, it has been a true honor working closely with a storyteller of Steven's talent and stature."

Not making the move over are DreamWorks' other two partners. David Geffen is not joining Spielberg in the new venture, and Jeffrey Katzenberg remains head of DreamWorks Animation, which is not affected by the Spielberg deal.

The three founded the studio in 1994 with $500 million in seed money from Paul Allen, a co-founder of Microsoft, producing some major hits including the Shrek animation series that competed heavily with Pixar -- another animation house started by Apple Inc. founder Steve Jobs.

In 2006, with the company on the brink of bankruptcy more than once, according to Geffen, Paramount Pictures purchased the live-action portion of DreamWorks for $1.6 billion, including the assumption of $400 million in debt.

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