DreamWorks, Fox Strike a Deal

DreamWorks SKG and 20th Century Fox announced a deal late Thursday to collaborate on two films, both of which will be directed by Steven Spielberg.

Combined with a deal for two Robert Zemeckis-directed films set earlier, Thursday’s announcement deepens the studios’ commitment to share the risk on big-budget films.

DreamWorks and Fox will co-finance “Minority Report,” a science-fiction thriller starring Tom Cruise. Based on a Philip K. Dick story, the film is set in the criminal justice system of the future, where killers are arrested and convicted before they commit their crimes.

Studios commonly split rights on expensive movies because of the huge financial risks. Projects directed by Spielberg, the most financially successful filmmaker in history, are as safe as investments get in Hollywood.

But even with Spielberg films, the risk to studios can be large because the director-producer takes such a sizable cut.

“I’m thrilled by the opportunity of working with Tom Cruise and, at the same time, returning to the genre of science fiction,” Spielberg said in a statement.

Fox developed the project and offered to let Spielberg’s studio co-produce it in exchange for a promise that he would direct a second film.

While the second picture has not been selected, “that’s in the nice-problem-to-have-later category,” said Tom Rothman, Fox’s president of film production.