What will become of DreamWorks Animation?

[Daikun]

Ugh... Lassie? Really?

That show was so bland.

[Avaitor]

Yeah, I don't see Lassie turning out well for them.

Oh, and apparently Dreamworks is working on a Peabody & Sherman series, I believe for Netflix. That's actually a better idea, since I don't think the characters really lend themselves to a movie. I know they can work as a short subject series, however.

[Daxdiv]

Let me guess, Timmy is going to fall down the well to another dimension and Lassie has to save him?

[Nameless]

Yeah, I don't see Lassie turning out well for them.

Oh, and apparently Dreamworks is working on a Peabody & Sherman series, I believe for Netflix. That's actually a better idea, since I don't think the characters really lend themselves to a movie. I know they can work as a short subject series, however.

Where did you read about this series? I thought DWA had basically decided the Jay Ward characters weren't worth their time once they took the write-down on the movie (the way they handled that still bothers me; they figured the thing was gonna fail and so decided to get the pain out of the way, while it seems like they REALLY wanted ROTG and Turbo to be hits)

[Daikun]

Where did you read about this series?

Animation Guild Blog

Of course, it's a sketchy source at best, so you never know.

[Daikun]

DWA may get bought out.

[LumRanmaYasha]

The source of the rumor is unidentified, so I'm taking this with a grain of salt. Considering their financial difficulties, though, it wouldn't surprise me if the talks are happening as reported, and Softbank does buy them out if negotiations are settled.

[Nameless]

Sale talks have cooled.

This isn't the first time a sale's been rumored. Katzenberg offered DWA to Viacom circa 2007, and News Corp. kicked the tires in 2012; I also recall reading that in 2009, Katzenberg shopped DWA to Comcast (where he tried to sway them to let him be CEO of NBCUniversal), Disney, and Time Warner, but they all said no. I don't think Hollywood is interested in owning DWA outright now, considering how problem-riddled it is and how egotistical Katzenberg is.

[Daikun]

Potential merger talks with Hearst and...Hasbro?

I'm thinking the shellshocked Hub veterans are feeling a bit desperate...

[Nameless]

There's no talk of Hearst buying DWA outright, just of them investing in AwesomenessTV.

I haven't said this here, but when The Hub existed, I felt that Hasbro buying DWA would have been a fairly easy way to bolster Hasbro's forays into family entertainment. It seems kind of odd for them to do this now that they're on the way to bowing out of Discovery Family...and Hasbro could well join the list of Hollywood outsiders whose investments came to nothing or ended up blowing up in their faces (e.g. Transamerica, Coca-Cola, Matsushita, Seagram, Vivendi).

Another kink in the deal: a lot of valuable Hasbro IP, like Transformers and G.I. Joe, is locked up elsewhere. Who's to say that Paramount won't have a freakout and start cranking out more of those just to hold onto the rights, like Sony is doing with Spider-Man?

There is, however, a possibility that Penguins of Madagascar could perform poorly and scuttle the deal. And having Jeffrey Katzenberg be chairman of the combined company? And calling it "DreamWorks-Hasbro"? Are we sure this is 2014 and not the late 1990s? This sounds like a possible deal from Hell, the way it's set up now.