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UPDATE: It’s not just that The Weinstein Company is denying today’s buzz in film financing circles that it’s taken a $50 million writedown because of all the movies it’s dumped into 2009. 
Nah, what’s way more interesting is that it’s blaming a specific guy for spreading the rumor. This afternoon, Harvey’s attorney Bert Fields phoned to tell me on the record: “This story is complete false. There is no Weinstein writedown, not for $50 million, not for $5. We think we know who’s feeding this venomous garbage to the media, and when we do he’ll find himself on the wrong end of a very big lawsuit.” So enquiring minds want to know: who’s Harvey fighting with now? Because this unnamed guy, whoever he is, must be a heavy to have major people take what he says as near-gospel. Indeed, this morning I heard the buzz in film financing circles that The Weinstein Company had to writedown $50 million of Goldman Sachs’ money this week. It’s reportedly taking the loss because of those four films it dumped into next year, Crossing Over, Killshot, Fanboys and Shanghai, plus The Road… (And let’s face it: who in their right mind thinks even one of those pics is going to make a dime of profit in 2009?) I also just received an emailed denial from Irv Reiter, the EVP of Financial Reporting at the Weinstein Company: “With regards to your blog entry of October 28 regarding the Weinstein Company I am writing to confirm that The Weinstein Company has not taken a writedown on any of the films mentioned; Kill Shot, Crossing Over, Fan Boys, Shanghai and The Road.”
- The -$50 Million Weinstein Company?
- Harvey Won’t Talk About The Future…
- HARVEY WEINSTEIN VS THE WORLD, PART 1
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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(Cue spooky music)
Who knows what mysteries lie in the accounting of the Weinstein Company?…
…THE MYSTERY MAN KNOWS….
(End spooky music)
But seriously, the Weinstein Co. has only itself to blame if this does turn out to be just a rumour, for making it so believable. In fact, it struck me as more than believable, but downright logical considering some of the things that have been going on.
And the instant raising of the words “very big lawsuit” strike me as odd. It’s a privately held company, its stock price can’t be manipulated by false rumours and innuendo, and any worried investors can be mollified by a simple look at the books.
As dramatized in this little scene…
So where’s the case?
It just looks to me like they’re trying to preemptively shut everyone up before more reports start leaking out.
Diane Lane who stars in “Killshot” actually quit showbiz altogether over that films woes!
I just like to say that though the Weinstein Company is private, it still operates like any other company. It needs investment and it needs to make money. At this point I feel that the rumor may be correct, it might not be, but the company may still burning through money like Krusty the Klown betting on the Washington Generals to beat the Globetrotters. One thing for sure, I would hate to be the IRS official that looks at their accounting books.
Harvey will be fine. They have some promising films on their slate, but they need some nominations by 2010 for sure.
SR wouldn’t do that? Or would he?
At this point Harvey could release Gone With the Wind and Lawrence of Arabia within a month and not get a single nom. EVERYONE in this town hates the man. He’s poison. The only reason people tolerated that slob, was that he had money. Now that he’s broke, assistants aren’t even returning his calls. Talent and their agents know this as well. Everyone, including his dopey brother Bob know this as well. Even BAWB is staying away from him these days. One word. POSION.
Weinstein must be the biggest idiot in all of Hollywood (and that town’s full of ‘em). The way he has treated “Killshot” and its cast and crew is downright shameful. If he’d had even a lick of sense, he would have released it last year (when it was originally slated to release) and capitalized on other releases of its two LEADS, Diane Lane (Untraceable) and Thomas Jane (The Mist), and it would probably have boosted profits for all of those movies. Bub he has instead chosen to dick around with it, and now hopes that he can MAYBE capitalize on the POSSIBLE success of one of its secondary performer’s films (Mickey Rourke’s The Wrestler). Sounds like he’s hanging his hat on a hangnail, if you ask me. Just plain ridiculous. What a waste of what actually looks like a pretty good movie, and some first rate talent.
The problem with the Weinstein Company and all indie studios is they can’t get outside of the Hollywood beltway.
A lot of these executives ‘love’ going to the Toronto Film Festival, Cannes, AFM, etc, but their noses are not to the ground in terms of what the average person wants to see.
Take faith-based films: Tyler Perry was not found at any of these festivals/venues; neither were ‘The Fireproof’ filmmakers (as Nikki so shrewdly pointed out in another article). Another faith-based film, ‘Live Fast, Die Young’ made a $9,981 per-screen average last weekend with no advertising and not a blip from the ‘acquisition’ executives.
If you truly want to see the box office rejuvenate itself, think about ALL segments of the population. And don’t assume everyone is scrambling to see a Sundance film.