Miramax Signs Deal with Weinsteins

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The newly reconfigured Miramax is working with company founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein to create original productions and sequels to some of the former film studio’s best-known properties, including “Shakespeare in Love.”

Santa Monica-based Miramax, which owns the Miramax Films library, on Thursday said it signed a production deal with New York’s Weinstein Co., founded by the brothers after they sold Miramax to Walt Disney Co. in 1993. Disney this month sold the Miramax name and library to Filmyard Holdings, backed by billionaires Ron Tutor and Tom Barrack and Barrack’s Colony Capital LLC. Filmyard outbid the Weinsteins, who had tried to buy back the Miramax catalog in a partnership with Ron Burkle.

The first films to be produced under the agreement will be sequels to “Bad Santa,” “Rounders” and “Shakespeare in Love”. Other potential sequels and TV projects include “Bridget Jones’s Diary”, “Clerks” and “The Amityville Horror.” The partnership adds to existing relationship between the companies on the Scream and Spy Kids franchises, both of which have sequels to be released next spring.

“There is no better partner to build on these great films and turn them into franchises, while also creating exciting new TV properties,” Mike Lang, Miramax chief executive, said in a statement. “This agreement will extend the Miramax library while also enabling us to create new content without committing near-term capital.”

The Miramax library includes 700 motion pictures that were produced, financed or distributed by Miramax Films since 1979. Among its award-winning holdings are “The English Patient,” “Good Will Hunting” and “Pulp Fiction.”

“We are very close to these films and the new management of Miramax also feels that we are in the best position to create sequels that are at once worthy and compelling in their own right,” Harvey and Bob Weinstein said in a statement.

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