FOUNDED: 1994
TWO-SENTENCE HISTORY: DreamWorks’ three principal founders—Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen—were titans of their respective fields; together they wanted to create a new kind of Hollywood studio. Despite turning out a few hits (like Best Picture winner American Beauty) and developing a very successful animation division, DreamWorks now functions as an independent production company (in which an Indian business magnate holds a 50 percent stake). Of the three founders, only Spielberg in involved with the current entity.
MEMORABLE FILMS INCLUDE: Prince of Egypt (1998), Shrek (2001), The Ring (2002) and Tropic Thunder (2008)
THE LOGO: Spielberg always wanted to use an image of a man fishing from the moon—and decided the best way to create that was via CGI. A friend, visual-effects legend Dennis Muren, suggested that Spielberg also consider using a painting and commissioned Robert Hunt to execute the idea. One of Hunt’s alternative versions included the nostalgia-inducing image of young boy fishing (with his son as model for the youthful angler). Spielberg was taken with this concept and a motion version was created at ILM. The accompanying music was specially written by John Williams, whose scores have included Star Wars, Jaws, Superman and the first three Harry Potter films..
VERSIONS: Click here to see the original version of the logo, and here to see a version used before 2008’s Kung-Fu Panda.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbsJZC_9kCY]