Is David Geffen Done With The Film Business?



(image via vanityfair)

David Geffen, who famously anticipated the Obama rout of the Clintons (with a little help from the michievous MoDowd), is not a happy camper. Mud-wrestling with Sumner Redstone -- eww- can do that to a man. Break his spirits. Fuck with his headspace. In his new blog today Peter Bart asks: What will happen to DreamWorks? An article last month in the Los Angeles Times provides some backstory:

"DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen has been on his yacht in Tahiti since late March, but even from that distant tropical isle, his intentions have been made loud and clear -- DreamWorks' top creative team is planning to leave the Paramount lot, a departure spurred by an endless loop of animosity between Geffen and Viacom chief Sumner Redstone and Paramount chief Brad Grey. According to an existing series of contractual outs, Geffen can announce his departure in August, creating an opening for co-founder Steven Spielberg to depart in October, triggering a key-man clause allowing DreamWorks chief executive Stacey Snider to leave as well.

"Geffen isn't talking to the press. But he made his feelings clear last December in an interview with Vanity Fair. 'These people are a nightmare,' he said of the Paramount top brass, adding, 'I chose to sell this company to Paramount. It turned out to be a poor choice.' DreamWorks loyalists say that Geffen is at work on a whopper, not just out of loyalty to Spielberg but because the new deal will be his last in show business. He's been telling friends that he's through with the movie business. With all the money in the world, he wants to pursue other interests. It is likely that Snider, an indefatigable, highly regarded executive who has become a Spielberg confidant, will become a DreamWorks partner in the new arrangement."

Sumner, of course, a veteran of the Punic Wars (Averted Gaze) is something of a connoiseur of blood feuds.