MUMBAI: With studios tightening their budgets, production house Parkes/MacDonald has found a new source of funding in Abu Dhabi‘s Imagenation.

As part of a new venture, Imagenation will pump in $10 million into Parkes/MacDonald development projects in a revolving fund, with the money replenished as it is used. It will also be given the opportunity to co-finance

productions if the projects are okayed for production.

While the deal is being made specifically with Parkes/MacDonald, it creates associations that go beyond the banner. The venture indirectly extends the global relationships of DreamWorks, which is financed by India‘s Reliance Entertainment, to the Middle East.

Parkes/MacDonald has already inked a first-look deal with DreamWorks. Thus all projects from the Imagenation venture would go first to DreamWorks. But any projects that the Steven Speilberg studio passes on could be passed on to other studios or produced directly with Imagenation.
For the producers, the venture offers a chance to access funds that studios are increasingly reluctant to provide, moving scripts along faster and making peddled projects more appealing to studios - since those projects would require less development investment on their end.