Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures and Relativity Media are teaming up with their most sweeping movie co-financing deal to date, adding more than $1 billion to the already massive infusion of outside cash into Hollywood. The studio and Relativity Capital, a partnership between deal maker Ryan Kavanaugh's West Hollywood-based Relativity Media and the New York hedge fund Elliott Associates, will co-finance at least 75% of Universal's movies through 2011, the companies said Wednesday.

Want some screenwriting advice? Add drawings to your script. And then put your dialogue in bubbles. If recent studio acquisitions are any evidence, then the fastest way to get a movie deal these days may just be to turn your next Big Idea into a graphic novel. In a faddish frenzy, no fewer than 22 film projects born of graphic novels or comics have been announced in the last six weeks.

Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson don't hear "no" very often. But after they submitted a final budget of $130 million for their 3-D animated movie "Tintin," based on the Belgian comic strip, to Universal Pictures, the studio balked. The decision has left the two powerful filmmakers scrambling to find another financial partner.

In a move that brings Steven Spielberg closer to reestablishing his independence, Universal Pictures will distribute the movies produced by the filmmaker's new DreamWorks studio. However, Spielberg and partner Stacey Snider's ambitious plans to fund their venture have been slowed by the global credit crisis. The new DreamWorks is seeking to raise about $1.2 billion in equity and debt to operate the company and fund movie production.

Universal Pictures can breathe a sigh of relief. Two of the studio's most prolific producers are expected to stay put at the studio, laying to rest speculation that they would find a new home. Working Title Films co-Chairmen Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner have not signed their new contracts, but the deal points were hammered out as of Friday, according to people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the negotiations were confidential.

For everyone who complains movie tickets are getting way too expensive, Universal Pictures has an answer: $15 million in free tickets for an upcoming movie. There's one small catch -- the freebies are for a film that came out last year. In an unusual effort to drum up an audience for "Peaceful Warrior," Universal will return the film to theaters March 30, supported by a national ticket giveaway.

Three prominent Mexican directors who had been shopping themselves to Hollywood studios as a team are forming a partnership with Universal Pictures. Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuaron and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu will call their production label Cha Cha Cha. The deal will allow the trio the kind of creative control and ownership few filmmakers enjoy. Universal was viewed as the front-runner to make the deal, which was announced Friday during France's Cannes Film Festival.