"Facing pressure to decide on her future, Universal Pictures chairman Stacey Snider said Sunday she would join DreamWorks as co-chairman and CEO.

Over the weekend, Hollywood waited on tenterhooks as Snider chose between keeping her highly compensated job running Universal and its annual release slate of about 30 pictures and moving on to a new career phase, supervising a live-action slate of four to six pictures for the newly owned subsidiary of Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures unit.

Snider will report to Paramount chairman and CEO Brad Grey and will share the chairman title with DreamWorks partner David Geffen. She will run the day-to-day operations of DreamWorks, where she will collaborate closely with Oscar-winning director-producer Steven Spielberg, whose latest film from Universal and DreamWorks, ""Munich,"" is an Oscar contender. ""It's all about Steven, it's not about anything else,"" one senior Universal executive said.

Snider had long dreamed of working with Spielberg and enjoyed collaborating with him on ""Munich."" She was upset when Universal's NBC Universal parent opted not to outbid Paramount for DreamWorks.

While Snider's boss, Universal Studios president Ron Meyer, made it clear that he wanted Snider to remain at the Universal helm, he was unwilling for the studio to operate in limbo any longer while he waited for Snider's decision. Speculation had swirled for several weeks that Snider was considering a post at Paramount when in fact she had called Spielberg to express her interest in joining him at DreamWorks.

After nine years at Universal, the 44-year-old mother of two daughters, ages 7 and 9, told Meyer she wanted to consider other options. Snider never told NBC Universal or parent company General Electric what terms she might be seeking for them to extend her contract, which expires at the end of this year.

At the end of last week, Meyer lost patience and pressured Snider to make her decision by the end of the weekend. According to a studio source close to Meyer, he told Snider that the studio was going to ""move forward with her or without her.""

Snider, who flew back Thursday from meetings in London, met with her key department heads Friday afternoon. She told them she still did not know what she was going to do but would make a decision quickly.

Her lawyers, Skip Brittenham and Sam Fischer, had been negotiating all week with Grey on a compensation package for Snider to supervise DreamWorks, which Viacom and Paramount purchased in December for $1.6 billion. Snider's annual Universal salary has been estimated at more than $6 million; Grey said Snider accepted a salary cut in keeping with DreamWorks' annual budget and a far less demanding job. If DreamWorks is successful, Snider will be rewarded with bonuses, he said.

""Snider is one of the best executives we have in the movie business,"" Grey said. ""Our strategy at Paramount was to bring the best and the brightest talent to the studio to turn it into the most dynamic Paramount we could. Stacey fits into that category.""

Grey also expressed his continued commitment to Paramount president Gail Berman. ""She's continuing to do a great job building our slate,"" he said.

Snider will move to DreamWorks' offices on the Universal lot as soon as Meyer tells her what he needs her to do, she said. She won't be going into Universal on Monday. ""I'm changing my address,"" she said. ""Hopefully, friendships and good fellow feelings will follow. It was not about a deal. I had reached the end of my shelf life as a corporate executive. I loved it for six years. I said, 'Can I and should I be doing this job four or five years from now?' There were other adventures to experience.""

Spielberg expressed his hope that, building on DreamWorks' foundation of 12 years, ""Stacey (will) take us even higher.""

Snider's departure from Universal throws the studio into turmoil. Universal has thrived on stability for a decade through a succession of owners, including Seagram, Vivendi and, since May 2004, GE. Meyer now will move to select Snider's successor either from within his deep executive bench or outside the studio.

Hollywood insiders are betting that the most likely candidate to take Snider's job is studio vice chairman Marc Shmuger, who oversees worldwide operations, marketing and distribution. Former vice chair of production Scott Stuber and Focus Features co-president David Linde, whose division has delivered three hit Oscar contenders this year -- ""Brokeback Mountain,"" ""Pride & Prejudice"" and ""The Constant Gardener"" -- also are in contention for the post.

Snider oversaw all domestic and international business units of Universal Pictures, Focus Features and Universal Studios Home Video and Universal Pictures Franchise Development, including production, distribution and marketing, as well as acquisitions, strategic planning, finance and business development. Meyer already has drawn up a roster of about 30 candidates from inside and outside the studio but appears to be leaning toward promoting from within.

Meyer's loss can be viewed as a coup for Geffen, who still bears a grudge against NBC Universal for pulling out of the deal to purchase DreamWorks.

At DreamWorks, Snider will find herself dealing with married producing partners Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald, who have long functioned as Spielberg's closest collaborators, first at Amblin Entertainment and then at DreamWorks, where they headed production until segueing last year into a producing deal.

Snider's compensation presumably will be higher than their rich deals, which involved hefty salaries as well as a sizable cut of the first-dollar gross on movies they produce. ""I look forward to working closely with the DreamWorks and Paramount team,"" said Snider, who also called Paramount production head Berman to say she looked forward to working with her.

Snider also will supervise DreamWorks head of production Adam Goodman and his creative staff. ""I don't understand why Stacey wants to become Spielberg's d-girl,"" one studio executive said.

An avid book-lover, Snider built her Hollywood career as just that, a development executive. She trained in the mailroom at Triad Artists Agency, honed her story skills first from producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, then Peter Guber, and rose in the ranks to president of production at TriStar as a protegee of Guber, then the chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment. Snider joined Universal as co-president of production (with Marc Platt) in 1996 and was promoted to head of production in 1998, eventually taking on the chairman post in 1999.

Respected and experienced, Snider built a solid track record over seven years as studio head, creating the franchises ""The Mummy,"" ""The Bourne Identity,"" ""Meet the Parents,"" ""The Fast and the Furious"" and ""American Pie."" Her tenure has yielded many Oscar contenders, including ""A Beautiful Mind,"" ""Seabiscuit,"" ""Bridget Jones's Diary,"" ""Erin Brockovich"" and the DreamWorks co-production ""Gladiator."" Her 2005 slate boasted the hit ""The 40-Year-Old Virgin"" as well as ""Cinderella Man,"" ""Jarhead,"" ""The Producers,"" ""Munich"" and Peter Jackson's $207 million, three-hour remake of ""King Kong,"" which failed to deliver on its box office promise.

Snider leaves Universal with a solid slate for this year, including Michael Mann's $120 million ""Miami Vice,"" starring Jamie Foxx and Colin Farrell; the actioner ""Sub-Mariner""; Spike Lee's ""The Inside Man,"" starring Denzel Washington and Jodie Foster; and several high-octane comedies including ""Evan Almighty,"" Tom Shadyac's sequel to ""Bruce Almighty,"" starring Steve Carell.

""Stacey was a valued colleague who made a significant contribution to Universal Pictures,"" Meyer said. ""I hope that this move helps her achieve her wishes for a different business lifestyle. But even with her departure, we still have the most talented team in the business and will continue to effectively run our studio. Thanks to the entire team, we have a strong slate for the rest of 2006 and well into 2007.""

Source: Reuters/Hollywood Reporter"