Spielberg looks for new studio beyond Disney

Steven Spielberg, the most bankable director in Hollywood history, is looking for a new studio home ahead of the looming expiry of his distribution deal with Walt Disney.

The director of hits such as Jaws, Jurassic Park and Saving Private Ryan is in negotiations to move his DreamWorks company to Universal Studios when its present agreement with Disney expires in August 2016, according to people familiar with the matter.

It is not certain that a deal will be signed, but it would represent a homecoming for the 68-year-old Mr Spielberg, who started his career at Universal, now owned by Comcast. It is where he made some of his best-known films, including Jaws, E.T. and Jurassic Park, and he still works out of offices at the studio.

Disney struck a distribution deal with DreamWorks in 2009 but since then has bolstered its output from Marvel Studios, which it bought later that year, and will this year release the first of several new Star Wars films following its 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm.

DreamWorks’ deal with Disney covered 30 films, or up to six films a year. Disney received a 10 per cent fee for each DreamWorks film it distributed and marketed and also provided some loan funding to the production company.

Disney and DreamWorks are set to release two new productions directed by Mr Spielberg before the deal expires: Bridge of Spies, a Cold War thriller starring Tom Hanks, in October and The BFG, based on the Roald Dahl children’s book.

Mr Spielberg was heavily involved as executive producer of Universal’s blockbuster Jurassic World, the latest sequel to his 1993 hit, which has collected the third-highest global box-office receipts behind Avatar and Titanic.

DreamWorks was originally founded by Mr Spielberg and film producers David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994. It was bought by Viacom in 2006 for $1.6bn.

Mr Katzenberg and Mr Geffen are no longer involved with the studio, which relaunched as a standalone production company in 2009 with $325m of backing from India’s Reliance Entertainment, controlled by billionaire Anil Ambani.

Three years ago it struck a partnership with London-based Mister Smith Entertainment to manage distribution of its films in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Its output has slowed in recent years, however, and only 11 films have been released under its 30-picture deal with Disney.

In 2012 Reliance injected an additional $200m into the company, which subsequently scaled back production to about three films a year. Last year it lost its chief executive, Stacey Snider, to 20th Century Fox.

Mr Spielberg’s talks with Universal were first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

Universal has been on a tear this year with a string of hits. Jurassic World, Furious 7, the Despicable Me spin-off Minions, Pitch Perfect 2 and Fifty Shades of Grey were all in the top US releases by box office takings. The recently released Straight Outta Compton, a biopic about hip hop group NWA, has been the top-grossing film for three straight weekends.

Its Hollywood firepower helped boost revenue and profit at parent Comcast, which reported a 7 per cent lift in profit in the second quarter.