Welcome to the newest addition of the Spielberg Shuffle, where the fate of DreamWorks is constantly changing and everyone wants a piece.

Thing is, that piece went to Reliance BIG Entertainment, part of The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group. Bullet points!

- Spielberg and Stacey Snyder are now in partnership with Dubai’s Reliance BIG Entertainment.

- David Geffen, who arranged the deal, will not be joining the new DreamWorks.

- The majority of the DreamWorks staff will make the move with their principals.

And here is where this whole thing gets confusing. Last we heard from DreamWorks, the mobile studio, they were locking down a six-year, six-picture distribution deal with UNIVERSAL STUDIOS, and they claimed that we’d see the first DreamWorks/Universal deal as early as late 2009.

My post about it is HERE and the NYTimes source is HERE.

So why are we hearing about a very similar deal between DreamWorks and Disney today…

The official press release reads:

The Walt Disney Studios has agreed to enter into an exclusive long-term distribution arrangement with filmmaker and DreamWorks Studios co-founder Steven Spielberg, and partner Stacey Snider, chief executive officer of DreamWorks, to distribute all upcoming live-action motion pictures produced by DreamWorks under their partnership with Reliance BIG Entertainment, part of The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, it was announced today by Dick Cook, chairman of The Walt Disney Studios.

Under the terms of this arrangement, Disney will handle distribution and marketing for approximately six DreamWorks films each year. The first DreamWorks motion picture to be released under the Touchstone Pictures banner is scheduled to hit theaters in 2010.

So what happened in-between here and there?

Well, the Reliance deal required Speilberg and Co to match the investment they were getting from overseas in Dubai (where all the money went, if you’re wondering). When it got down to it, the estimated number is around $250 million, of which Universal was only providing $100 million, and they already weren’t feeling too good about that. So, when Spielberg knocked on Universal’s door asking for another $150 million in seed money (again, these numbers are guesses, though probably close), the deal became suspect and secret talks with Disney resumed.

Nikki from DHD has another possible link:

But there’s also another side to this. Spielberg was irritated that Universal came to him asking to renegotiate his longstanding 2% theme parks deal dating back to the days when Lew Wasserman/Sid Sheinberg controlled the studio. These days, that’s worth $50 million a year to the director. And Universal also asked to delay for 5 years Spielberg’s ‘”put” deal — his right to have the studio buy him out of the parks deal in a year. But it was also just one of a laundry list of blue sky terms that Universal asked for on the very first day of negotiations, just like DreamWorks had its own laundry list of blue sky terms. When Spielberg balked, Uni took back the proposal within 24 hours

Either way, we’re now getting DreamWorks through Disney, but our Spielberg rides at Universal Studios?

The movie business is so weird.