Whither DreamWorks?

That question is increasingly at the forefront of insiders’ minds as the 7-year-old studio’s distribution pact with Universal Pictures draws to a close at the end of the year. Universal handles the U.S. releases of all DreamWorks pictures but the terms of the deal are said to be exceptionally stiff.

And, while DreamWorks has had an almost unrivaled success at the box office, with movies from “American Beauty” to “Gladiator,” it has not come cheap. Indeed, a hefty chunk of one of its biggest hits, “Saving Private Ryan,” went to Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks alone.

Now there’s talk that Universal may not want to extend the expensive agreement. So who would step in its place? DreamWorks principal Jeffrey Katzenberg acknowledged this week that he has held talks with three studios: 20th Century Fox, Paramount Pictures and AOL Time Warner, whose chief executive, Gerald Levin, also acknowledged that “we are talking.”

—

Seeing their acclaimed movie “Traffic” scoop up four statuettes at the Academy Awards wasn’t the only recent piece of good news for producers Ed Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz. Best known as the creators of television’s “thirtysomething” and pictures like “Glory” and “Legends of the Fall,” the two filmmakers have signed a four-year deal with Canadian film and TV powerhouse Alliance Atlantis, a cable operator and independent producer and distributor of pictures like “The Sweet Hereafter” and “Crash.”

Zwick and Herskovitz’s Bedford Falls Co. has committed to develop at least six scripts for Alliance over the next four years, and Alliance will co-produce all their films.

The deal not only marks the first time that Zwick and Herskovitz have signed such a contract outside the studio system, it also marks a big step forward into Hollywood for Alliance. It has recently boosted its filmmaking profile by financing such projects as director Neil Jordan’s “Double Down” and the Samuel L. Jackson thriller “51st State.”

One of the greatest stories in the history of derring-do may finally be making its way to the screen. After years in development, “Endurance,” the tale of British explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton’s 1915 voyage to the South Pole and his extraordinary feat in leading all his men out alive after their ship sank, is close to getting a green light from Columbia Pictures.

The project has long been a dream for “The Perfect Storm” director Wolfgang Petersen, but Petersen has had trouble getting a screenplay that matched his requirements until now.

He has just hired “Schindler’s List” scribe Steven Zaillian one of the top screenwriters in town to polish an already well-liked screenplay by Dan Gilroy.

Contributing columnist Stephen Galloway can be reached at [email protected].