Steven Spielberg and DreamWorks Studios in Deal to Form New Company
LOS ANGELES — Steven Spielberg said on Wednesday that he and his DreamWorks Studios would join Participant Media, Reliance Entertainment and Entertainment One to form an entertainment company called Amblin Partners to produce movies, television shows and digital content.
At the same time, Universal Pictures said it would distribute films from the new company, beginning with “The Girl on the Train,” to be directed by Tate Taylor with Emily Blunt in a lead role, in October 2016.
The new venture, which will be based on the Universal lot, appears poised to absorb and redirect the creative output of DreamWorks Studios, which has distributed its films under a deal with the Walt Disney Company since 2009. That distribution arrangement was set to expire next August.
Amblin Partners also will become an exclusive vehicle for Mr. Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, including a television division that is already making 13 episodes of the series “American Gothic” to air on CBS next summer. Further, the new company will produce many, though not all, of the films, television shows and other projects developed by Participant Media, an issues-oriented media company owned by the entrepreneur Jeff Skoll.