At Dreamworks: Lights! Camera! Anxiety!

Jeffrey Katzenberg brought his teenage kids. George Clooney was there, too, eager to see if his movie career might finally click. As several dozen reporters settled into their seats in a rented theater in Century City, Calif., recently, there were more than enough jitters to go around. "A lot of us wondered if we were ever going to see the DreamWorks logo up there on the screen," said Laurie MacDonald, co-head of the studio's movie unit, as she introduced The Peacemaker, DreamWorks SKG's first film, scheduled to open on Sept. 26.

Hollywood has been waiting since 1994, when DreamWorks raised an impressive $2.7 billion in private equity and debt, for the studio's first film offering. The interest has only intensified since then for the studio launched by Hollywood power brokers Steven Spielberg, David Geffen, and Katzenberg. Its other projects--such as Ted Danson's canceled sitcom, Ink, and George Michael's album, Older--have turned out to be underwhelming. More than ever, it is movies, especially those directed by Spielberg or the animated films produced by Katzenberg, that are expected to drive this company's fortunes.