Still, it will be difficult to re-create paradise. Currently DreamWorks has the freedom to make about eight pictures a year. Most of the major studios already release upwards of 18 films per year, and finding room on their slates for additional DreamWorks fare could be difficult. Even if Spielberg and Geffen were able to raise money to, in essence, start DreamWorks all over again as its own independent entity, it might end up looking more like a production deal than an actual studio—without the ability to greenlight. Though there is another theory a few in the industry are whispering about: that Spielberg and Geffen will raise a large enough sum of cash to buy a chunk of Universal Studios and bring Snider with them.
For someone who says she’s grateful to have left the corporate environment of Universal for the boutique feel of DreamWorks, Snider is surprisingly nostalgic. “The limitation when you’re one piece of a big company is, can you affect change in a significant way? Are you a voice at the table? Because if you really, really care about the movies, you want to make sure that the financials of the movie business are as healthy as they can be,” she says, sounding a bit like she’s on a job interview. “I actually miss—and unexpectedly—the conversations about strategy and new business models. All of the things that I would’ve expected that I’d be unburdened by are actually the things I’m trying to find a voice for now.”
Snider’s ambitions aside, the most important factor in DreamWorks’ future will be nothing other than what Spielberg wants. And, for now, he is keeping those intentions close to his vest. “DreamWorks is a company that has resisted being typecast,” he says. “Our company has the ability to shape-shift over time.”
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