reported by Phil Marcello, CyberScreenwriter.com

A $200 million production facility has been raised to co-finance motion pictures produced by The Montecito Picture Company. The transaction was announced today by Montecito principals Tom Pollock and Ivan Reitman.

The new financing vehicle, to be called Cold Spring Picture LLC, will co-finance ten motion pictures over the next five years. Cold Spring will have a first look agreement with DreamWorks Studios, coinciding with Montecito's new five year first look agreement with DreamWorks, a relationship which has resulted in a number of successful comedies including ROAD TRIP (2000) and OLD SCHOOL (2003). The first of the ten Cold Spring pictures, DISTURBIA, starring Shia LaBeouf, David Morse, Carrie-Anne Moss and Sarah Roemer, directed by DJ Caruso, has already completed principal photography, and will be released by DreamWorks through Paramount Pictures in 2007.

The $200 million capitalization is a combination of equity provided by Merrill Lynch and a consortium of hedge funds, together with bank debt, provided by a team of banks led by Merrill Lynch and Societe General.

Pollock and Reitman pointed out that while the agreement gives DreamWorks a first look on all Montecito and Cold Spring pictures they are free to accept projects from other major studios and to set up pictures that DreamWorks declines to co-finance.