So now we know with whom David Geffen has been negotiating all these many months. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the principals of DreamWorks SKG are close to a deal with one of India's biggest entertainment conglomerates to form a new movie venture that would liberate Steven Spielberg from Viacom's Paramount and all the acrimony of that relationship of the past few years. Citing people familiar with the situation, the newspaper says Mumbai-based Reliance ADA Group would provide Spielberg and company with $500 million to $600 million in equity. "In Reliance, the DreamWorks team also would have an unusual and ambitious partner in the film business: an Indian firm with interests in telecommunications, financial services and entertainment that wants to build a media empire by financing Hollywood pictures." (I can't link to the article because it's behind a paid wall.)

The WSJ points out that Reliance's entertainment division, Reliance Big Entertainment, already announced a slate of investments in Hollywood films last month at the Cannes Film Festival. Those include providing financing to a handful of Hollywood top talent with production houses, like Jim Carrey, George Clooney, Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt. "The company also said then it would spend more then $1 billion over the next 18 months building its entertainment empire in India and abroad... Reliance's plunge into Hollywood is part of a broader push among India's corporate titans to take their place on the global corporate stage. The country has now produced global players in software, steel, autos and is building a growing powerhouse in telecommunications."

So the new Hollywood mogul name to know is Rajesh Sawhney, president of Reliance Big Entertainment, and formerly chief operating officer at Times Internet Ltd., part of The Times Group, one of India's largest media and entertainment companies.

I'm not surprised that the Wall Street Journal had the scoop because Geffen is close to the newspaper's owner Rupert Murdoch. The word has long been that Fox, Warner or Universal would be in the mix for a DreamWorks distribution deal, with bets on Uni because of Spielberg's history with the studio and the fact his office never moved offed the lot there.

Posted over at Deadline Hollywood.