TOLDJA! ICM Management Buyout Complete 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’, … 
Netflix Exec Denies It’s Responsible For Nickelodeon … 
DESPERATE: HuffPo & Oprah Team Up Now 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Great Gatsby’ 
How Did Women Pilot Writers Fare For 2012? 
Disney Quits Snow White Film ‘Order Of The … 
Cannes Planning Surprise Screening Of Non-Fest Films; … 
ReelzChannel Acquires U.S. Rights To ‘Pillars’ … 
Investors Unfriend Facebook As SEC Investigates IPO … 
Cash Windfalls For WME Agents, Assistants 
A&E IndieFilms Sets ‘Happy Valley,’ … 
Hot Cannes Property: Natalie Portman, Lynne Ramsay Team On … 
Brad Pitt Hits Cannes With ‘Killing Them … 
CNN Hits 20-Year Weekday Primetime Low 
Longtime TV Exec Rod Perth Named NATPE President & CEO 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘House’ Ends Run On High-Ish … 
Does Cable News Clarify Or Confuse The Public’s … 
Mark Burnett’s Company Launches Scripted Unit, Taps … 
‘Mary Mother Of Christ’ In Lionsgate Deal 
Icon UK Group Joins ‘The Butler’; Forest … 
I’m told about 10 people were axed this week at The Weinstein Company. Its Hong Kong office is closing. And its UK office will be down to one person. Even though Inglourious Basterds has been doing better than expected at the box office, TWC still has to share the worldwide revenues 50-50 with Universal. At one point, Uni was nervous whether The Weinstein Company even had the $30M necessary to adequately release IB domestically. Because TWC had depleted all its cash reserves, taken out a $75M bridge loan from Ziff Brothers Investment, and put all of its other movie releases on hold. True, Basterds gave Quentin Tarantino his biggest opening ever, thus erasing Harv’s fears this would be a Grindhouse-like flop. But Basterds had a negative cost of $72M and a humongous first-dollar gross participation — as much as 25% — for Tarantino and Brad Pitt.
Then there’s The Weinstein Company’s release of its 100%–owned Halloween II one week later. The first in the Rob Zombie rebooted franchise opened with a solid $26.3M weekend back on August 31, 2007 — promising a newly invigorated franchise. Didn’t happen. Last weekend, Zombie’s fan-repelling Halloween II managed only a $16.3M debut weekend, which was a huge disappointment. Not just to Harv, but to others. Because several TWC filmmakers were told that the Weinsteins have to see how Halloween II opens before they decide how many movies they can open for the rest of 2009. Mind you, not how Basterds does. But the holiday horror flick, which is really where they hoped to make their money. I guess TWC’s recent PR offensive in the pages of both The New York Times and Los Angeles Times didn’t stave off the reality of their situation. It’s no longer a case of what Miller Buckfire & Company, brought in to help TWC restructure, recommended after its review (to release only 10 movies a year, at least four from Bob’s Dimension). But what TWC can afford. I remember how Harvey told me back when Grindhouse tanked that he’d taken his eye off the film ball. He blamed himself again during his recent media circle-jerk to explain why TWC is in dire straits. Oops, I used the “D” word. Any minute now, that’ll be Bert Fields calling from behind the scenes to say TWC is fine. But even though The Weinstein Co kept denying it to me, much of the senior staff departed in the past year, including the head of acquisitions and the head of production, as well as most support staff. Now still more employees are gone.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
Loading ...
Seeing “H2″ with a paying audience was a stunning experience. I wish Bob W. or Rob Z. could have heard the cholos and Fangorians I saw it with. These kids knew nothing about film or how much it cost to make or market. All they knew is, Michael Meyers was a bearded homeless guy who liked to kill dogs.
And whoever made the movie just stole their money. They wanted to burn the theater down. Treating an audience like that is no way to run a studio, you assholes.
I’m just pleased as can be whenever these Hollywood blowhards fall. Harvey Weinstein and company have polluted the local cineplexes with nothing but crap since leaving Miramax and establishing the “ego-driven” Weinstein Company. Good riddance!
Since last November, people in all departments have been quietly laid off throughout the year. Development/production has been whittled down to four people (in both TWC and Dimension). Harvey’s head of publicity walked out. The one editor at Weinstein books was just laid off as well. More people leaving at end of their contract this Fall. The list goes on company-wide. Anyone on the inside will tell you that since the layoffs began last November, the company has been gradually dismantling itself throughout 2009. The movies waiting to be released, probably with the exception of Nine and maybe Piranha 3D, are all garbage – The Road, Shanghai (which is particularly unreleasable), Hurricane Season, Youth in Revolt. And the development slate is in a state of inertia; likely they can’t even afford to renew the options they have. And even if they could, nobody wants to work with these guys anyway. Agents and talent often don’t even see TWC even as a last resort – it’s just not worth the trouble, and certainly not worth the pay cut. The positive Inglorious Basterds spin – completely shallow and disingenuous (it’s shocking how uninformed the media are about film industry economics, even though they claim to know what they are talking about) – can really only last so long.
Linking “Hurrican Season” under the broad umbrella of “garbage TWC is waiting to release”… is not only ungracious and unfair, it’s just plain inaccurate. I was part of the shooting crew that worked on this movie. It features stunning performances by Forest Whitaker and Taraji Henson and a slew of other lesser known but inspiring talents. But more to the point, this inspirational story has a lot to say about life in post Katrina New Orleans. With stunning photography by DP Larry Blanford and directed by Tim Story, it’s a terrible shame that this movie can’t be released to find its audience because of TWC’s money problems.
have you scene the actual film? put aside your personal involvement in production and the good intentions of those involved. the script was crap to begin with and it’s reflected in the final product. I’d argue that this movie has in fact NOTHING to say about Katrina; it plays like a cheap movie of the week made to exploit an emotional subject (something that we all know is not beneath Harvey and Bob). Maybe you can’t see that, but everyone at TWC can – nobody but Bob and a few others liked it to begin with.
I just saw the trailer to “Nine” and that looks like it may be a money maker. Anonymous…. will this be enough to save the current in production films that are worth saving?
Very interested, have worked with TWC before.
I think Todd’s review was a bit personal and overboard. All the other reviews of the film have been good. Todd attacked it undeservingly and everyone thinks that. It’s a great film that should be seen. Yes, depressing, but that is the story. Hopefully the company will be around to release the film properly.
I don’t think the negative review will affect the performance of The Road considering all the buzz that it had when the film was completed has now completely fizzled thanks to the TWC strategy of sitting on films until long after their sell by date.
Timing is everything, strike while the iron is hot, and all those cliches are true. The film might have survived bad reviews if it had been released when there was still a lot of buzz about the novel in the air.
I don’t think TWC will survive, and despite what I may think of the Weinsteins and how they run a company, it is a shame to see another independent company sink.
Harvey, who I respect the hell outa, should get back to what he’s good at – finding great new filmakers and taking a chance on them. Leave the business end to a large entertainment partner since both TWC and Genius Products tanked under his sole business control. You know, go old school, you’ll live longer.
To this day I don’t understand why the weinsteins would release another horror movie the same weekend as Final destination. It is a stupid move unless they had to justify or put in their books before summer officially ended. It would have done a little better had it opened it’s own weekend. But the movie sucked so badly, thought the first one was okay, but the second one I really wanted to walk out and that is rare for me to say that. But again, no reason to have 2 horror movies opening on the same weekend.
As I understand it, TWC picked the date months ago – it was WB/New Line who stepped on Zombie’s toes… er, release date.
You’re a strong man, James. I threw in the towel and walked out of that turkey (H2). It was an unredeeming, hyper violent, over the top Rob Zombie fever dream crap fest. To put it mildly…
First off, we need the Weinsteins. Ease up on the wishful thinking that they’ll go away. We are not better off without them, unless you love only movies featuring neoprene and toy lines.
Second, they’re like (but not actually, Bert Fields) mutant cockroaches. So until you hear the grinding of that tough exoskeleton, you need to expect them to be around when you flip on the lights or lift your shoe.
Third, they’ve made some fine movies. We should all hope that they’ll do it again.
Finally, I’m watching The Road even if it’s done with sock puppets, plastic army men and shot with an iphone.
PS. In terms of “dire,” wait and see what this business is like when these guys can’t survive. Fingers crossed that we’re not already that far gone.
I like your choice of words.
I predicted their demise the day I heard about them opening TWC based on the fact they were using other people’s money and none of their own. It’s hard to suceed from scratch twice, and doubly so when you don’t have any skin in the game.
These guys are toast. They had no chance.
They have a lot of their own money as equity in TWC… It’s not entirely OPM.
-RnsW
Note to Harvey — hiring directors like Rob Zombie and Fred Durst ain’t cool… WTF are you banking on with either of these guys? It’s not their notoriety… you’ll need a time machine to bank on that.
Why did they put Brad in the movie if he takes such a chunk of $$? He’s not worth it. The movie would have done just as well without him.
I absolutely don’t agree, i think it had such a huge opening because of Brad. But why complain about the movie’s great success? It made more than they could have ever dreamed.
I disagree. QT is a brand and when he does an exciting film, people will see it. Most of the hits this summer had no stars. The Hangover will make more money than IB and it had Brad… Copper as its star.
Hey Nikki, that picture of Harvey always scares me, with bob lurking in the background. Next report on the bros (and we all know there’s a lot more coming) can we have a different photo so i don’t lose my lunch when i log on to DHD?
I kinda dig that photo. It says alot.
That IB has done so well at the box office owes much to QT and Brad Pitt, their many fans combined are a mighty force. The film was sold on the back of Brad Pitt who is solid platinum overseas, and he has proved that he is worth whatever he is paid, especially as other AListers’ films have fizzled at the box office recently. Plus QT used actors who actually were allowed to speak their native languages and this has proved to be a huge selling point for IB, and IB tells a fantasy tale that many wished had happened. That said IB cannot alone save a company.
I don’t think it was Brad Pitt that made people go out to see the movie. They could have had Bradley Cooper in his role and the movie would’ve done the same. Brad Pitt was the weakest link as far as his acting goes. I kept thinking someone else would’ve been better as Aldo.
Couldn’t agree more, Marie!!
Wondering if Anonymous above knows what’s happening with ‘The Alchemist.’ I read that they were hiring writers earlier this year, and there was a big buzzy thing at Cannes (Coelho announced how pleased he was that Harvey promised to have the film shot by the end of this year. What a joke). I have a feeling they’re letting the book option lapse. Anyone know? Also, what’s happening in the LA office? Who’s still there, who’s canned?
Clearly Coelho knows nothing about the Weinsteins.
With 100% assurance I can say that The Alchemist will not be made any time soon, at least by the Weinsteins.
Next time don’t hire shitty directors like Rob Zombie to destroy a classic which could have been done way so much better. And please fire the guy that hired him, what a dumbass
So Tarantino finally delivered a “Inglorious Basterds” totally unlike the dream project he’d been gibbering about and promising for the last decade or so….at the theatre I attended, the audience clearly loved Brad Pitt, his ridiculous ravings and his Jewish-Avenger platoon….but both I and the audience only got teaspoon-sized doses of the boys…while the film ate up its 2 and half hour running time with the endless, subtitled jabba-jabba-jabba…which QT couldn’t even pepper with his pop-culture vomiting, since he knows absolutely
nothing about World War II, real human behavior or anything at all other than what’s in his encyclopedic video-store-inventory memory.
As for the Weinsteins….no they’re not GM and Ford…the movie world (and economy) will survive without them…just ask all the filmmakers whose work was parked in the Weinstein “fridge” where movies sat unreleased for years at a time…especially good riddance to Harvey, the Harry Cohn slob who fancied himself an artistic impresario…one good thing, presumably he doesn’t have the cash to try to collect “Nine” a bunch of undeserved Oscar nominations/awards at the expense of better films.
I agree…if times were tight, why hire a money drain like Pitt for such an important opening? And where’s the sense in releasing Halloween II the same day as another widely loved series sequel?? Common sense?? No. Besides, H2 will still pay off…wait for the DVD release and rental fees…times are just tough right now for a lot of people and unfortunately so many could only afford one movie night out…they chose Final Destination, like we all knew they would…it was 3D and had an obvious better following than the rebooted Halloween franchise…any one of us here could have marketed and planned that all out better than they did…
Let’s face it. H2 shouldn’t have cost ANYWHERE NEAR what it did. The point of horror movies is that they’re cheap, there’s an eager fanbase and you can make your money back more often than not. But, as usual, the Weinsteins spent way too much on it and now they sit back, surprised that they won’t turn a profit. Same with Grind House. That should never have cost a tenth of what it cost.
Halloween 2 was made for a mere 15 million dollars. In the film world by today’s standards that is extremely cheap. I believe Halloween 8 actually had a larger budget and that was made nearly 10 years ago?
They are only ever as good as their executives. Always have been, always will be. Michelle Krumm, Maeva Gatineau and others are huge losses.
without a doubt they had a brain drain since the last years of MMX and the good people they held on to that left this past year and half marked the end. The more HW pays attention to worse the movies get on the creative end – marketing – well P.T, Barnum wasn’t known for his talent/quality/brain power – knew how to sell to the crowd…umm I mean Harvey
Yeah! What kind of dumbass would hire Rob Zombie?! Get real, BradX.
RZ feature filmography:
House of 1,000 Corpses: Prod. Budget ($7M) // Worldwide Theatrical Gross ($16.8M)
The Devil’s Rejects (one of the best films of 2005): Prod. Budget ($7M) // Worldwide Theatrical Gross ($19.4M)
Halloween: Prod. Budget (?, but no more than $20M) // Worldwide Theatrical Gross ($80.25)
Halloween II: Prod. Budget ($15M) // U.S. Theatrical Gross in first 7 days ($20M)
You have no idea of facts or the figures of the business…H2 was shooting until a few weeks from release so if you add in the money for the additional photography (let’s not talk about the under estimate for principle photography) and inserts shoots – you have no idea what that adds to release costs; last minute edits, DI work, mastering, etc…it isn’t pretty. So your budget on the last one alone is so off it isn’t funny, no matter what the studio says and as we all know TWC is the worst. Second, don’t forget the millions and millions of release (ads) and print money (dist/prints) that they spent. Any idiot that says they didn’t hit it hard is out of touch. It followed most IGB ads, was all over TV and cable. As much if not more than FD4 so what do you think that cost? Get into reality and you will find out that theaters take between rentals of 40/60 percent depending on the release and the weakness of the studio or backer. Average this over release weeks, and while true some movies get up to 90/80% for the first week, it falls after that so the average works out.
A mess at best and in the days of DVD decay – a real mess.
I am not saying in all cases but typically the budget will include all the advertising monies need to get the film known. I am not sure about re-shoots done for Halloween 2 but the film was terrible and I can honestly say that was the first Halloween film I was waiting to end. But like I said the films budget usually includes all of the costs to advertise the film.
Sorry, that just is not true. The budget almost never includes P&A costs.
Sorry dude.
You couldn’t be more wrong – budgets do not include P&A.
“Bearded homeless guy that liked to kill dogs…”
Hilarious.
And don’t forget the actress that can’t get hired in anything else, the uber-hot, talentless Sheri Moon and her big white pony.
A white pony? How is that scary? The Black Stallion would tear that to shreds in M to the Vick’s underground ‘Plushy-Fighting Ring’.
Rob, you skull fucked me with the Myers remake. Tar, feather and please burn your directing future.
Marie, don’t kid yourself. There is no way IB would have done as well without Pitt. No way. His star power brought an audience – 42% women – who usually stay far away from Tarantino films. Harvey should kiss Brad’s fine butt for saying yes to Aldo Raine.
Hater’s right: more people know BP than they do QT. At the first weekend show that I attended, a woman walked past outside and, seeing the large lineup, asked: “Is this the lineup for the Brad Pitt movie?”
Bah on the haters! Let them flock to teeny-bopper Bic Mac flaccid 3-D porn pseudo-horror like THE FINAL DESTINATION. While not a perfect film, Rob Zombie’s HALLOWEEN 2 is certainly the best film in the HALLOWEEN franchise since the original. Zombie had actual ambition to truly do something different with the material, unlike the greatest hits cover album that was last years FRIDAY THE 13TH re-make. He had ambition backed by a real talent with the camera, true interest in characterization and excellent casting choices. Considering the conditions he had to work under (part of which came to light in interviews with Rob Zombie and Malcolm McDowell on Fangoria radio) its a testament to his future in film that Zombie was able to deliver a film as good as he did. HALLOWEEN 2 is a film whose stock will grow later on in its life, much the same way John Carpenter’s THE THING did after its initial disastrous release. And whatever financial problems the Weinstein’s are suffering down were long set in motion before HALLOWEEN 2 rolled; its simply become a convenient scapegoat for their poor decision making.
Wow. That’s pretty audacious of you to say RZ’s “Halloween” movies are in the same league as Carpenter’s movies, RZ pretty much shit on the franchise two times and called it a day (shaky camerawork, rhythmless editing and awful acting). And hiring your own freakin’ wife (who has no acting talent) for a significant supporting role reeks of laziness. (I give RZ kudos for casting Annie because Danielle Harris was one of the small bright spots of the Halloween sequels and she can actually act.)
And Malcolm McDowell did these “Halloween” movies for the money any way. He was close to not returning for H2 because the Weinsteins either reneged on a monetary deal for his return (or was promised something but wasn’t given it when he signed on). That says a lot about the Weinsteins.
Rob and Harvey would’ve been better off if they pushed H2 to October 9th after Paramount’s hasty decision to move “Shutter Island” to February 2010. It would’ve had the weekend to itself, it would be released during the month of Halloween, and it would’ve given TWC a chance to fully finance a marketing campaign for it (as opposed to foolishly opening it alongside FD4 and a week after IB came out).
@ misbegotten2
What you stated would be right, only if it wasn’t entirely wrong.
• Rob’s H2 is the WORST of the series, and we don’t need to wait for history to tell us this. It was the SEQUEL to the LAST “worst” HALLOWEEN movie in the series.
•”excellent casting choices”?? really?! you must be the only human on the planet who thinks his casting was “great” and not completely awful and distracting from the “story”. Which character did you like most – the white trash lead? the white trash sheriff? the white trash friends? OH! wait a minute… I know who the only human on the planet could be that thinks Rob’s casting is “excellent”… His WIFE!! Sheri Moon, is that you?! You were reaaaally SPOOOOKY as the white trash mom, dressed in white, caring around a white horse, and walking with TWO version of the same child in a HALLOWEEN MOVIE!
• poor work conditions = poor mr. zombie.
I’m sure it was rough for someone who calls himself ZOMBIE to be paid millions to work with his wife (you) and same cast as the last garbage film. In a recent interview I saw with him (sitting next to you), he said nothing scares him any more. 
awww…. poor mr. zombie is so hardcore that he can no longer get scared. 
If he can’t get scared, that why would ANYONE leave it up to him to scare OTHERS??
• Stop comparing Rob to John Carpenter in any way. they have NOTHING in common. and just because the THING is a remake, doesn’t mean the remakes of H1 or H2 will age better with time. it will be more like discovering sour milk left in the back of the fridge. worse with every passing day.
•The Weinstein’s make bad business decisions. Rob make bad life decisions (No offense Sheri).
@ misbegotten2.
You are way out of your drink. To compare H2 to Carpenter’s THE THING utterly deflates your argument and logic. The problem with Carpenter’s THE THING was that in 1982, the majority among the relative few who saw it recognized it as a great, underrated film and that has only increased in the decades since as more have seen it via cable and video/DVD.
THE THING’s failure in 1982 can be chalked up to poor marketing and really bad timing – the film came out within a week or two of E.T., which was a family-friendly juggernaut that put a bright, shiny face on the alien encounter movie. Plus, the Internet wasn’t around to give a voice to the fandom of the time – today’s generation of fandom was able to instantly spread the word about what an inept piece of shlock RZ’s film is. I actually dig RZ’s music for what it is but as a filmmaker, he’s as amateur and inept as they come. More filmmaking talent has dripped down Carpenter’s leg than RZ will ever have.
I can agree with you on one point, he tried to do something original. However, he forgot what made the franchise so successful in the first place. Please do not compare a Rob Zombie movie to a John Carpenter film. I actually enjoyed Zombies attempt on the first Halloween though it was no where near as good as the original. But part 2 was an atrocity pure and simple. There could have been very inventive ways to make the story more original but his vision was a warped and deluded one and I think it will be difficult for the franchise to recover unless they ignore his absurd sequel.
“He had ambition backed by a real talent with the camera, true interest in characterization and excellent casting choices.”
Give me a break. The film looked horrible and played horrible.
“HALLOWEEN 2 is a film whose stock will grow later on in its life, much the same way John Carpenter’s THE THING did after its initial disastrous release.”
Keep dreaming…
It was more than 10, and they just let go 5 or 6 others two weeks ago. And every month or so there’s been few, dating back to last fall.
I would like to know where I turn my application in?
Get real!! The “Road” is so awful that they have held off releasing it for almost two years. I am a major VM fangurl and I will tell you that I don’t intend to see a pic that features him dirty, dressed in rags and mumbling incoherently. Sadly he hasn’t done anything worth watching since “Eastern Promises” for which he was cheated out of an Oscar.
As far as Brad Pitt is concerned, if he is the “Last Movie Star,” then I would venture to say that the industry as we know it is dead. There are far superior actors (mainly working in television) on both sides of the pond who can and will deliver great work for far less money and bring legions of fans out clutching $$$ in their fists.
brad pitt is a money pittttt. he can’t open a film. inglorious basterds opened on QT’s back. the only films he’s in that have earned out have been the ocean films. anyone remember ‘meet joe black’ and that jesse james film he did.