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http://www.vanityfair.com/online/da...insteins-a-settlement-of-over-75-million.html
Press Release
Bryan Burrough Reports that Disney Will Pay the Weinsteins a Settlement of Over $75 Million
by <CITE class="vcard author" sizset="112" sizcache="53">Vanity Fair</CITE>
February 3, 2011, 12:01 AM
Photograph by Victor Demarchelier.
Vanity Fair special correspondent Bryan Burrough reports that, “after several months of negotiations, Disney quietly agreed to a settlement in which it will pay the Weinstein Company $32.5 million in cash, hand over its 50 percent stake in Project Runway, and reduce its share in four jointly owned films, including Scary Movie and Spy Kids, to 5 percent from 50 percent.” [Read the article.]
According to Burrough, after Miramax was bought by a group of investors led by Ronald N. Tutor, “the Weinsteins brought in two of the country’s top attorneys, Bert Fields and David Boies, to confront Disney.” They were hired to prove something Harvey had argued all along: “The terms of the agreement they had made in 2005, when the Weinsteins left Disney, prevented certain Miramax movies from being assigned to third parties,” Burrough writes. “Once Fields and Boies got involved, they realized he had been right about his claim to the backlist films.”
“The $75 million settlement helped Harvey recover from what, by his own admission, was a wrenching defeat,” Burrough writes in a story that details the personal and professional stakes involved in the Weinsteins’ failed attempt to buy Miramax back from the Disney Company.
Burrough speaks to Weinstein aides, advisers, and friends, and to Harvey himself, to learn details of the confidential negotiations and piece together Harvey’s fall and resurgence as a force behind such Oscar-nominated films as The King’s Speech and Blue Valentine.
“Fahrenheit 9/11—that started it,” Harvey tells Burrough, tracing the roots of his burnout. “The whole thing, it was just disastrous.” By the time the Weinsteins left Disney, Harvey admits, he had lost his love of making movies. “I just didn’t want to do it anymore,” he tells Burrough. “I was interested in everything other than movies, frankly.” Harvey tells Burrough that he is to blame for the Weinstein Company’s early losses. “I think I took my eye off the ball,” says Weinstein, who got involved in TV and Internet ventures, while the brothers were building their new company. “From about 2005, 2006, 2007, I was out of it. I thought I could oversee movies and have it done for me, so to speak.”
Burrough also reveals that the Weinsteins’ mother, Miriam (for whom, along with their father, Max, Miramax is named), was itching to get in on the action when her sons began their failed negotiations with Disney. “‘Harvey, who should I call? Should I call Bob Iger? If you want to close this, Harvey, I can do it for you,’” she said, according to a Weinstein aide “If you know Miriam at all, she was serious. Totally serious.”
The March Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and L.A. on Thursday, February 3, and nationally and on the iPad on Tuesday, February 8.
READ MORE: “How Harvey Got His Groove Back” (March 2011)
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/da...insteins-a-settlement-of-over-75-million.html
Press Release
Bryan Burrough Reports that Disney Will Pay the Weinsteins a Settlement of Over $75 Million
by <CITE class="vcard author" sizset="112" sizcache="53">Vanity Fair</CITE>
February 3, 2011, 12:01 AM
Vanity Fair special correspondent Bryan Burrough reports that, “after several months of negotiations, Disney quietly agreed to a settlement in which it will pay the Weinstein Company $32.5 million in cash, hand over its 50 percent stake in Project Runway, and reduce its share in four jointly owned films, including Scary Movie and Spy Kids, to 5 percent from 50 percent.” [Read the article.]
According to Burrough, after Miramax was bought by a group of investors led by Ronald N. Tutor, “the Weinsteins brought in two of the country’s top attorneys, Bert Fields and David Boies, to confront Disney.” They were hired to prove something Harvey had argued all along: “The terms of the agreement they had made in 2005, when the Weinsteins left Disney, prevented certain Miramax movies from being assigned to third parties,” Burrough writes. “Once Fields and Boies got involved, they realized he had been right about his claim to the backlist films.”
“The $75 million settlement helped Harvey recover from what, by his own admission, was a wrenching defeat,” Burrough writes in a story that details the personal and professional stakes involved in the Weinsteins’ failed attempt to buy Miramax back from the Disney Company.
Burrough speaks to Weinstein aides, advisers, and friends, and to Harvey himself, to learn details of the confidential negotiations and piece together Harvey’s fall and resurgence as a force behind such Oscar-nominated films as The King’s Speech and Blue Valentine.
“Fahrenheit 9/11—that started it,” Harvey tells Burrough, tracing the roots of his burnout. “The whole thing, it was just disastrous.” By the time the Weinsteins left Disney, Harvey admits, he had lost his love of making movies. “I just didn’t want to do it anymore,” he tells Burrough. “I was interested in everything other than movies, frankly.” Harvey tells Burrough that he is to blame for the Weinstein Company’s early losses. “I think I took my eye off the ball,” says Weinstein, who got involved in TV and Internet ventures, while the brothers were building their new company. “From about 2005, 2006, 2007, I was out of it. I thought I could oversee movies and have it done for me, so to speak.”
Burrough also reveals that the Weinsteins’ mother, Miriam (for whom, along with their father, Max, Miramax is named), was itching to get in on the action when her sons began their failed negotiations with Disney. “‘Harvey, who should I call? Should I call Bob Iger? If you want to close this, Harvey, I can do it for you,’” she said, according to a Weinstein aide “If you know Miriam at all, she was serious. Totally serious.”
The March Hollywood issue of Vanity Fair hits newsstands in New York and L.A. on Thursday, February 3, and nationally and on the iPad on Tuesday, February 8.
READ MORE: “How Harvey Got His Groove Back” (March 2011)