Will Spielberg make dreams work with Anil?

Anil Ambani’s Reliance Big Entertainment is in talks with Hollywood director Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks to form a joint venture to make movies. Reliance will provide DreamWorks with up to $600 million (Rs 2,574 crore) and will get a large stake in the new company, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Since 2006, DreamWorks has been owned by Paramount-owned Viacom. Reliance’s equity investment in DreamWorks is expected to help founder Spielberg pull out his team from Paramount.

When contacted, a Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani (ADA) group spokesperson said preliminary talks have taken place between the two companies. “No comments on the deal. But generally speaking, Reliance Big will be a global entertainment company that will work with creative talent across the globe in innovative ways to create value. Our overseas initiatives will be to achieve this objective,” a top Reliance official added.

It has been clear for a while that Reliance Big is keen to make global footprints and wants to be part of Hollywood. The ADA group took over Mumbai-based Adlabs — a company that exhibits and distributes movies — two years ago. Since then, Adlabs has entered the US market. Early this year, it entered into an agreement with a US-based firm to operate a 250-screen cinema exhibition chain across 28 cities in the US.

In May this year, Reliance Big struck development deals with several production houses owned by Nicolas Cage, Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt.

“Hollywood continues to be the epicentre for content globally and we see Reliance Big having a sizeable presence in Hollywood over the next few years. Investments will vary from project to project and provided as and when needed,” a Reliance spokesperson added.