2003 and shut down in 2006.

All that remained was what became the core business, film production, including animation. The animation division, overseen by Katzenberg, was undoubtedly the most financially successful part of DreamWorks, with Shrek its best-known franchise. For most of its first decade, the live action film division, for which Spielberg was responsible, had a much spottier track record, winning Oscars with films like Saving Private Ryan, American Beauty and Dreamgirls, but stumbling financially.

By early 2006 it became clear to Spielberg, Geffen (right) and Katzenberg that they would have to swallow their considerable pride, take hits to their oversized egos and sell the company, which they did, to Paramount, for $1.6bn. DreamWorks animation was hived off as an independent company, while live action movie production moved onto the Paramount lot.

The business relationship with Paramount was a tremendous financial success. In the last couple of years DreamWorks had a terrific run of hits including Disturbia and Transformers, which took $319m in the US. But the personal relationships were a disaster.

Spielberg and Geffen continually felt

slighted by Paramount's bosses, particularly after a top executive for Viacom, which owns Paramount, said that whether DreamWorks remained with Paramount was "completely immaterial" to the financial future of the company. The matter came to a head in late 2007 with furious comments by Geffen about Sumner Redstone, the imperious, irascible, aging head of Viacom.

"Nobody is going to treat me or my partner [Spielberg] in that manner and stay in business with us," Geffen fumed. "Nobody. Redstone, he is accustomed to bullying people. And I will not be bullied. There is no fight I will run from. I am absolutely unafraid of Sumner Redstone."

And so the company that was founded on a slight to Jeffrey Katzenberg's ego now decided to look for a new home because of perceived slights to Geffen and Spielberg. In its latest guise, funded by Reliance, Dreamworks will make just six films a year. Geffen has decamped, leaving Spielberg the only one of the original triumvirate. Hardly the grand studio they once dreamed about. But at least their egos are intact. For now.