New DreamWorks home could lead to Jaws and Back To The Future reboots

There's a lot of inside baseball going around within the movie industry today as Steven Spielberg goes shopping for a new distribution deal for DreamWorks before his current one with Disney comes to an end in August 2016. (THE BFG will be the last picture under their current arrangement, seeing release on July 1, 2016). 

Universal seems to be the likely choice for a new partnership, settling in as the consensus with those in the know for a number of reasons. Spielberg has maintained his offices at Universal, even as DreamWorks films have been distributed via Paramount and then Disney. There's also the strong relationship he already has there as an executive producer on the JURASSIC PARK series, only bolstered by the exceptional box office performance of JURASSIC WORLD. Spielberg has a tendency to be very hands-on with the projects his name is attached to, and so Universal would make a lot of sense, given JURASSIC WORLD 2 is in the plans and all the theme park ideas that are most certainly in the works as a result.

And while that all may sound fine and good, and there are a number of other financial incentives why Universal would make a good home for DreamWorks in the near future, there is one finer point from The Hollywood Reporter's breakdown of Spielberg's negotiations that are sure to raise a number of red flags and set off some blaring alarms.

"He also is key on potential reboots of other Universal franchises such as JAWS and BACK TO THE FUTURE."

Uh oh.

Now I don't want to send everyone into a panic thinking that the sky is falling… but that is not an encouraging sentence, not by any means. The fact that "potential reboots," "JAWS," and "BACK TO THE FUTURE" even share the same sentence is troubling enough. But could Universal have designs on cranking up the reboot machine for their own past successful properties in the hopes of generating new revenue for titles that otherwise aren't going to do anything else except future anniversaries?

I know we like to think that some things are held sacred in Hollywood. We romanticize the art that means a great deal to us. But let's face it… If a major Hollywood studio could show some sort of growth and create fresh avenues for cash by going back to a classic well, they'd do it in a heartbeat. That's the business part of show business. 

That doesn't mean something like this is a sure thing or that it is definitely something that'll be going down anytime soon. However, the inclusion of this idea in what we're talking about means someone has definitely had more than a passing conversation about it in the past… and if the stars aligned the right way, this could be something the trigger was pulled on.

I know it's not the answer you want to hear, but consider this… If a JAWS or a BACK TO THE FUTURE redo was going to happen, wouldn't you want Spielberg somehow involved in guiding it than not? There's your question for the day.