The Weinstein Company’s sales talks failed, and now the one-time revered studio says they are going to pursue bankruptcy. The film industry is currently in a state of turmoil following numerous sexual assault allegations levied against producer Harvey Weinstein, one of the co-founders of The Weinstein Company. As a result, the studio opted either to delay its projects, shelve them, or sell them off to competing studios, perhaps with the hope of recovering at least some of their production costs.
Paul King’s Paddington 2 – one of the most critically-acclaimed films of all-time – was sold to Warner Bros. Pictures along with The Six Billion Dollar Man (which may begin production in summer 2018). On the other hand, Tim Hill’s The War With Grandpa, Neil Burger’s The Upside, and Garth Davis’ Mary Magdalene were all shelved indefinitely, until they are either written off as losses or sold off to other distributors. While the company hoped to close a sale sometime soon, to prevent filing for bankruptcy, it seems their efforts were for naught as they are now heading in that fateful direction.
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According to a recent letter obtained by THR, The Weinstein Company rejected a buyout offer from Maria Contreras-Sweet and Ron Burkle, who represented a group of investors looking to save the company from insolvency, and said that they have no other option but to pursue bankruptcy.
This news comes on the heels of The Weinstein Company reportedly nearing a deal with investors. However, as the letter sharply states, the investors the company’s board of directors were negotiating with seemed to have sought the deal in bad faith. Apparently, negotiations were delayed, for numerous reasons, to the point that the studio was bleeding cash and could barely afford to pay their debts. So, rather than continuing to seek a deal with Contreras-Sweet, Burkle, and any other investors, they are now looking to file for bankruptcy and attempt to save the company and its assets that way.
No matter what The Weinstein Company does at this point, it’s clear that the studio, as it stands, will never operate in Hollywood again. Sure, its assets – meaning, its films and TV shows – may eventually be picked up by other studios and distributors, but the company most likely won’t make a comeback. Of course, it could morph into another studio, just as Weinstein and his brother, Bob Weinstein, left Miramax Films (after selling the studio to Disney) to create The Weinstein Company. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
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Source: The Weinstein Company (via THR)
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