Biography

After his resignation from Disney in 1994, he partnered up with Steven Spielberg and David Geffen (SKG) to create their own studio: Dreamworks.

Had animosity towards Disney CEO Michael Eisner and personally based the villainous character Lord Faarquad of "Shrek" on Eisner himself.

Left Pixar and The Walt Disney Company after being denied a promotion.

Back in 1978, he was working for Paramount Pictures and was given the daunting task of bringing the Star Trek franchise back after a decade long "sleep". Eventually, the movie was complete, and is now "Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)".

Ordered several scenes of The Black Cauldron (1985) to be cut due to their violent and scary nature.

Of this much I'm certain: If you write a good script with a great premise, you'll have a big hit. If you write a bad script with a great premise you'll still make money. But if you write a great script with a bad premise, success is not likely.

[on how he got a reluctant Leonard Nimoy to reprise his role as Mr. Spock for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"] "All I remember is being in a resturant in New York with Leonard, and begging on my hands and knees. It worked."

If you asked 100 people to list 100 words to describe me, not one of them would have 'patient' written down. The irony is that the medium I find myself in love with and devoted to takes infinite patience.

[on the 1994 founding of DreamWorks SKG and taking risks] Remember, I'm someone who got fired from Disney and eight days later started the first studio in 65 years with two of the most brilliant, successful people in the history of the entertainment business, doing something everyone said was somewhere between improbable and impossible. I'm afraid that's exactly what I love doing. [July 2017]

[on his vision for 'New TV', creating premium programming native to mobile devices] It's unbelievable how many hours we all spend watching great TV content today and, separately, how much time we are consuming short-form content. So why can't those two worlds come together in what is a new creative and business alignment? (...) I'm of the mind to take the path of least resistance. This idea is hard to do, and recognizing what a huge undertaking it is, I'm not intimidated by doing this alone. But it would be for sure a harder, longer road to travel. [July 2017]