DreamWorks Pictures (also known as DreamWorks SKG or DreamWorks Studios, commonly referred to as DreamWorks) is an American film production company, and a label of Amblin Partners. It was founded in 1994 as an original live-action film studio by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen (together, SKG), of which they owned 72%. The studio formerly distributed its own and third-party films. It has produced or distributed more than ten films with box-office grosses of more than $100 million each. In December 2005, the founders agreed to sell the studio to Viacom, parent of Paramount Pictures. The sale was completed in February 2006 (this version is now named DW Studios). In 2008, DreamWorks announced its intention to end its partnership with Paramount and made a deal to produce films with India's Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, re-creating DreamWorks Pictures as an independent entity. The following year, DreamWorks entered into a distribution agreement with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, wherein Disney would distribute DreamWorks films through Touchstone Pictures; the deal continued until 2016. As of October 2016, DreamWorks' films are marketed and distributed by Universal Pictures. Currently, DreamWorks operates out of offices at Universal Studios Hollywood. DreamWorks is distinct from its former animation division of the same name, which was spun off in 2004 and later became a subsidiary of NBCUniversal in 2016. Spielberg's company continues to use the original DreamWorks trademarks under license from DreamWorks Animation.
The near future of 2004,[i] Michael Townley, Trevor Philips, and Brad Snider partake in a failed robbery in Ludendorff, North Yankton, resulting in all three being presumed dead. Nine years later, Michael is living with his family in the city of Los Santos, under the alias Michael De Santa, after making a secret agreement with the Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB)[j] agent Dave Norton to stay hidden. Across town, gangbanger Franklin Clinton is working for a corrupt Armenian car salesman and meets Michael while attempting to fraudulently repossess his son's car; the two later become friends. When Michael finds his wife sleeping with her tennis coach, he and Franklin chase the coach to a mansion, which Michael destroys in anger. The owner of the mansion, drug lord Martin Madrazo, demands compensation. Michael returns to a life of crime to obtain the money, enlisting Franklin as an accomplice. With the help of Michael's old friend Lester Crest, a disabled hacker, they rob a jewellery store to pay off the debt. Meanwhile, Trevor, who now lives in squalor on the outskirts of Los Santos, hears of the heist and realises that it was Michael's work; Trevor had believed that Michael was killed in the Ludendorff heist. Trevor tracks Michael down and reunites with him, forcing Michael to reluctantly accept him back into his life.
