In October of 1994, when Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg first announced that they were about to launch a brand-new entertainment company … Well, this trio of show business vets was thought to be so unstoppable that the Hollywood press corps dubbed them the Dream Team.
But 11 years later, that dream had pretty much run out of stream. Tinseltown’s first new studio since 1919 was about to be absorbed by one of the industry’s oldest, Paramount Pictures. And with DreamWorks Animation being the only unit of this once-genuinely-ambitious enterprise left standing … Hollywood insiders were left to wonder how this Dream of a company could have eventually become such a disappointment.
Well, film critic Daniel M. Kimmel wondered the same thing. Which is why he first spent the past few years pouring over press accounts of DreamWorks SKG’s history and then used that material to create “The Dream Team: The Rise and Fall of DreamWorks: Lessons from the New Hollywood” (Ivar R. Dee, Publisher; November 2006).
Copyright 2006 Ivar R. Dee
And Daniel’s book does a pretty good job of charting the meteoric rise & fall of the DreamWorks corporation. Which started when three of the most powerful people in show biz suddenly found themselves at a career crossroads in the early 1990s (I.E. Spielberg because he had just won a long-sought-after Oscar for best director, Geffen because he had just sold off his music business, and Katzenberg because he had just been booted out of Disney). And Steven, David & Jeffery were all looking for new challenges, new worlds to conquer. Which is why it was almost inevitable that these three longtime friends would come together and create … something.
Of course, given the circles that Spielberg, Geffen and Katzenberg travel in, we’re not talking about a Mickey-and-Judy “Hey, my uncle’s got an empty theater ! Let’s put on a show !” sort of creation. Truth be told, one of the more seminal moments in the birthing of DreamWorks SKG came when Steven, David & Jeffrey were all attending the same state dinner at the White House back in September of 1994. Where the cream of Hollywood was joining then-President Bill Clinton to honor then-Russian president Boris Yeltsin.
Now where this gets interesting is that Geffen was actually a personal guest of Bill & Hillary Clinton that evening. Which is why he was slated to spend the night in the Lincoln bedroom. But since David was so excited about what he, Steven and Jeffrey were attempting to get off the ground, he wanted to leave the White House right in the middle of the night. So that Geffen could then go talk with his soon-to-be-partners at their nearby hotel about their future project.
But you see, the White House isn’t the Red Roof Inn. And the Secret Service tends to really frown on people who try to leave that building in the middle of the night. Which is why David then found himself basically trapped in the Lincoln bedroom until the following morning.
Copyright 1995 Time, Inc.
Soon after that (In October of 1994) the official partnership was announced. And soon after that, the papers were full of news about that $500 million state-of-the-art movie studio out in Playa Vista, CA. And the $100 million deal that DreamWorks Television had just cut with ABC (Which was to have allowed Steven Spielberg to personally pick out all of the programs that were to be presented in that network’s Saturday morning line-up). And it all sounded so wonderful, exciting and ambitious …
But then environmentalists got after the DreamWorks founders for planning on building their massive production complex right next to the delicate Ballona Wetlands. Which is why that project was eventually abandoned in 1999. And then when the Walt Disney Company acquired ABC / Capital Cities in August of 1995 … Well, obviously Michael Eisner wasn’t going to allow Steven Spielberg to hand-pick all of the cartoons that would then run on ABC on Saturday mornings.
Mind you, this wouldn’t be the only time that Disney & DreamWorks would have dealings. Kimmel actually does a very thorough job of documenting the numerous times that these two entertainment companies butted heads. Take — for example — the whole “Antz” / “A Bug’s Life” debacle.
As Daniel states in “The Dream Team” :
There was rather pointed speculation in some quarters that “Antz” had been rushed into production by Katzenberg knowing that Pixar’s next film, “A Bug’s Life,” was being made before he left Disney. Katzenberg denied it, but Pixar’s John Lasseter, who had directed “Toy Story” and was now doing “A Bug’s Life,” was furious. “We were about a year and a half into our movie when we heard the news. My reaction was ‘Why? Why would Jeffrey do that? ‘ “
The real issue, though, was the film’s release date. Katzenberg engaged in a game of “chicken” with Disney. “Antz” was announced as a March 1999 release. Disney then put “A Bug’s Life” on the calendar for Thanksgiving 1998. In June, Katzenberg moved “Antz” to an early October release, seven weeks before “A Bug’s Life.” on your calendar.
And Kimmel isn’t one to sidestep some of the more sensational aspects of this particular behind-the-scenes tale. Witness the part of “The Dream Team” that actually questions DreamWorks SKG’s real motive for putting “Antz” into production in the first place:
Copyright 1998 DreamWorks Animation
Pixar chairman and CEO Steve Jobs claimed that Katzenberg tried to bribe his company to push back the release of “A Bug’s Life.” Jobs told “Newsweek,” “Jeffery called us and asked us to convince Disney to delay the release of ‘A Bug’s Life’ beyond the holiday 1998 season because that’s when he wanted to release ‘Prince of Egypt.’ He said if we did that, he would kill ‘Antz.’ And we said, ‘Don’t go there.’ ” Katzenberg denied that he made any such call.
It’s in discussing the animation side of things where I think that Daniel’s book really shines. When it draws back the curtain and reveals how hugely troubled productions like “Shrek” struggled to reach the big screen:
Comedian Chris Farley was signed to voice the green ogre, but his death in December 1997 nearly derailed a year’s worth of work. In one of the ways that would come to distinguish DreamWorks from Disney animation, the film had been built around Farley’s personality, which had been allowed to inhabit and define Shrek. With the exception of Robin Williams’ genie in “Aladdin,” Disney’s voice actors were secondary to the animated characters. “Shrek” got back on track with the signing of Mike Myers, who brought his own sensibility that would influence both the script and the look of the film.
Katzenberg had a moment of panic when Myers saw the film with his voice track. Myers hadn’t found the voice for Shrek, later recalling it sounded like Myers himself with a thicker Canadian accent. Myers asked that they scrap his audio recording track and let him start again as he searched for the perfect voice for the character.
Explained Katzneberg, “I don’t think Mike understood what was going on in my mind, which was literally one third of [the scenes with] his character had already been animated.” Katzenberg could have been the budget-conscious boss and told Myers to live with it, but instead he let the actor have his way.
That decision added an estimated $4 million to the film’s budget, since now the animators would have to redo numerous scenes so that Shrek’s lips would match Myer’s new line readings. But when Myers came back with the new Shrek voice — which he described as “the Scottish accent of somebody who’d live in Canada twenty years” — Katzenberg knew he had made the right choice. “It was like we had junk and now we had gold,” he said.
Copyright 2001 DreamWorks Animation
And now … Well, all that’s really left now is DreamWorks Animation. Which is gearing up for next month’s release of “Shrek the Third” to theaters.
You know, as I read through Daniel M. Kimmel’s “The Dream Team — The RISE and FALL of DreamWorks : Lessons from the New Hollywood,” it was honestly hard not to be sad about all the promise & potential that was ultimately unfulfilled here. But was it because Spielberg, Geffen and Katzenberg had a few bad breaks? Or more because at least two of these partners never really seemed to throw their considerable influence and/or creative energy behind the company?
To get the answer to that question … Well, you’re just going to have read Daniel’s book. Which I highly recommend, by the way.
Speaking of Mr. Kimmel … On Thursday, April 26th, Daniel will be appearing at the Barnes & Noble at Boston University (Which is located at 660 Beacon Street). Where — starting at 7 p.m. — Kimmel will be discussing the history of DreamWorks SKG. After his talk, Daniel will then meet with his fans as well as sign copies of “The Dream Team — The RISE and FALL of DreamWorks : Lessons from the New Hollywood.” So if you’d like to meet Mr. Kimmel and/or learn more about this once-promising entertainment company, then I suggest that all you Boston-based animation / film fans attend his talk next week.
Your thoughts?