According to a Reuters report today, Dreamworks have finalized their breakoff from Paramount Pictures and will enter a distribution deal with Universal Pictures.

Says the report:

Universal Studios has reached an agreement to distribute films by DreamWorks SKG in its new partnership with Reliance ADA Group of India, DreamWorks Chairman Stacey Snider said Monday.

Universal will take an 8 percent distribution fee on a slate of roughly six films per year over the 7-year life of the contract, which begins in 2009, Snider, a partner in the new movie venture with director Steven Spielberg and Reliance, said in an interview.

"It's an excellent organization run by top-flight executives ... they are long-term colleagues and people with whom we have worked," Snider said of the decision to return to the studio she once headed and where Spielberg started his career as a movie director.

Although DreamWorks still has contractual obligations to complete some 30 pending projects with former partner Paramount Pictures, Universal could share domestic distribution on a number of those films, Snider said.

Since completing its $1.2 billion deal with Reliance in September, Snider and Spielberg had been searching for a distribution partner for the new entity.

Spielberg had a two-decade career with Universal as a director until he formed DreamWorks with music mogul David Geffen and ex-Disney Studios chief Jeffrey Katzenberg in 1994.

Universal subsequently distributed films for DreamWorks and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc, a separate publicly held studio run by Katzenberg.

Both agreements ended in 2006, when Paramount Pictures acquired the private company and signed the public company to a distribution deal.

Last week, DreamWorks ended its uneasy partnership with Paramount to start the new venture with Reliance but the animation studio remains in a distribution agreement with Paramount until 2012.

Under the separation agreement, DreamWorks and Paramount, and now Universal, will share financing and distribution on 15 films, and Paramount has an option to globally distribute 15 other films on which the two studios share costs, Snider said.

Any new properties acquired by DreamWorks under its new venture will be distributed solely by Universal, she said.