Filmed entertainment portal iFilm said Wednesday that it is in talks to merge with the never-seen DreamWorks, Imagine Entertainment and Vulcan Ventures project Pop.com. “We have many details to figure out, but we hope to have a deal within 48 hours,” iFilm chief Kevin Wendle told The Hollywood Reporter.
Pop.com emerged in October amid hype befitting the Hollywood moguls supporting the online venture: Steven Spielberg, David Geffen and Jeffrey Katzenberg of DreamWorks, Imagine’s Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and Vulcan’s Paul Allen.
But Pop.com has never been launched, and it is unclear which assets iFilm would receive if it purchased Pop.com.
Today’s Los Angeles Times said that the merger is “an admission [from Katzenberg, Geffen, Spielberg, Grazer and Howard] that their enterprise was a nonstarter.” The Times observed that Pop.com’s founders had little success in generating support for the venture among top Hollywood talent.
In an interview with the online magazine Inside, Katzenberg said, “This is always hard. … I don’t know if it will get done.”
