The Weinstein Company will help develop new content for sequels and TV shows based on Miramax's vast library, including Good Will Hunting.
Like the protagonists of a hip, indie dramedy from the mid-1990s, the studios Miramax and The Weinstein Company have against all odds found each other once more, causing all Gen-Xers to sigh with delight. Though keep your nostalgia in check for a moment.
In a stunning development, the brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein have closed a deal with Colony Capital principal Tom Barrack Jr. to align their interests in developing new content based on the vast creative properties in Miramax’s deep library, which the Weinsteins developed and curated from 1979 until their departure in 2005 that culminated with the founding of The Weinstein Company. This news is of a special interest considering that Harvey Weinstein lost a competitive bid against Barrack to buy the Miramax library in 2010; Qatar Holding and Colony Capital purchased these rights for about $660 million at the time.
Under the new deal, The Weinstein Company will develop projects that Qatar Holding and Miramax will finance for the foreseeable future. Most explicitly this means franchising many of the classic titles in this catalogue. In the immediate future, the news indicates there are plans to make sequels for Shakespeare in Love and Rounders, while TV series versions Good Will Hunting and Flirting With Disaster should go into development soon.
As Barrack said to Deadline, ““Sure, we own the intellectual property in the library, and most of the intellectual properties in development, but we didn’t have the art form. If I called Quentin Tarantino and said, I have a great idea how to do a Pulp Fiction TV series, chances are it would be a very short conversation.”
However, Colony Capital may have found the way to do just that by partnering with the Weinstein brothers, who are also interested in Miramax’s development library for projects that never saw fruition, such as the Stephen Colbert scripted The Alibi.
As Harvey Weinstein told Deadline, ““In an age where there is so much demand for television, we see a lot of TV series. I personally have never made a sequel, but I will make Shakespeare In Love as one. I’ve always wanted to do that and now we have the impetus to.”
So how about that movie fans? The era of independent film’s greatest heights, which gave us movies like Pulp Fiction, Chasing Amy, Flirting With Disaster, and Good Will Hunting, may be coming to the small screen near you. Sound off in the comments below with any opinions on the matter!