In Hollywood, director Steven Spielberg always seems to get his way.
Which explains why someone as driven as Universal Pictures Chairwoman Stacey Snider would relinquish her powerful position as head of one of Hollywood's six major studios to run a small movie production label for a lot less money.
For Snider, Spielberg's siren call to join him at the DreamWorks unit of Paramount Pictures proved irresistible, supplying her with the creative antidote to a rigid corporate culture she endured in the two years since General Electric Co. bought Universal and merged it with the NBC network.
On Sunday, the 44-year-old executive ended more than a week of fragile negotiations by officially signing on as co-chair and chief executive of DreamWorks, the live-action movie company Spielberg co-founded that was sold to Paramount for $1.6 billion two months ago.
Throughout her executive career, Snider had developed a close relationship with the industry's most iconic and successful director.
She first met Spielberg when she was a young production chief at TriStar Pictures, where he was developing "The Mask of Zorro" as an executive producer. Their relationship continued at Universal, where DreamWorks had long-term business ties and where Spielberg began a filmmaking career marked by such films as "Jaws," "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," "Jurassic Park," "Schlinder's List" and, most recently, "Munich."
"I had at times in my career hoped one day I could work with Steven," said Snider.
Now, she will sit alongside him at his production headquarters, ironically still based on the Universal back lot. Snider will run the day-to-day operations with Spielberg and DreamWorks co-founder David Geffen, with whom she shares the co-chair title. Snider's start date is unclear, since Universal has not formally released her yet from her current contract, which expires in December.
In a statement to The Times, Spielberg said: "Stacey has a unique combination in a film executive in that she recognizes a need to make commercial movies, but also aspires to make art. She recognized that balance is good."
Although Snider now is a member of Spielberg's creative dream team, some aspects of her new job may prove challenging to someone used to a studio chief's power.
Snider will be running Spielberg's small production label, one that is no longer independent but a division of Paramount and a subsidiary of giant corporate parent Viacom Inc.
