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3RD UPDATE: Here’s Miramax Films president Daniel Battsek’s email to staff:
Dear All-
After further reflection and discussion about the change in direction for Miramax, Rich Ross and I have agreed that I will step down as President of Miramax, effective the end of January, 2010. With this decision, we have also agreed that the best chance of success for Miramax is for the company to be located in Los Angeles, and I will work with the group on a transition plan. I’m very proud of all the great work we have accomplished here at Miramax and equally proud of my overall career at Disney.
Best -Daniel B.
2ND UPDATE: Consider that, just a month ago, Disney said the president of Miramax Films would “continue to oversee all aspects of creative, development, production and business and legal affairs” out of New York. I’ve learned that Miramax will close its New York office and move its Los Angeles headquarters to the Disney lot in Burbank. And instead of 6 to 8 films a year, Miramax will now put out 3. What’s still to be determined, I’m told, is how long Miramax will be left without a leader and how long it will continue to exist. But is this really existing? Especially after such a long and rich post-Weinstein Oscar history? Showing Daniel Battsek the door follows the “restructuring” of Miramax and the exits of president of production Keri Putnam and VP of acquisitions Peter Lawson. So another studio dismantles its specialty division, even though that began before new Walt Disney Studios chairman Rich Ross took over. Here’s his statement:
“With the change in direction at Miramax, we have reached a mutual agreement with Daniel Battsek that he will leave his post as president, effective January 2010. During his 18 years of service, he has brought some very prestigious and award-winning films to the Studio from Calendar Girls to The Queen to No Country for Old Men. We wish Daniel the very best on his future endeavors.”
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It continues as the suits insure that going forward there is no institutional memory. The suits can only exert complete control with the purging of any creative energy so bottom line decisions can be made based only on a p&l report. They are returning to the old days of Ron Miller, sad but not surprising.
I knew it. Sad.
Change in direction at Miramax? How about decimation? Call a spade a spade. What a shame.
It’s called downsizing.
Everybody’s doing it these days.
Haven’t ya heard?
Who will handle acquisitions from this point forward? If you’re Disney, with your consumer base, do you Need Oscars?
They’re so weird over there in Burbank. A lot of good people, but man it’s strange how separate they are from everything.
The specialty divisions do not consistently yield high margins and, thus, are not growth engines. Given the current state of the entertainment market, it’s not surprising that the studios would shed these units since they only create profits when they churn out a monster (i.e., Brokeback Mountain-esquetc). Studio demand for talent is going down as films released goes down, so that reduces the other need for these divisions: appeasing talent.
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out … he was great! And, will be snapped up in a NY-minute.
Geeze … what a business!
At this point it might be easier to just start a whole new batch of studios from scratch and call this whole thing a mulligan.
It’s just sad. That company was for many years a huge part of New York’s cultural identity. Now,
but a scant few in Burbank.
New York “film” culture, I should say. I don’t want to overstate it but it was a major artistic voice in NYC nevertheless. What a mess.
The death of these specialty divisions is the best thing to happen to independent film in a decade. They became as entrenched and corrupt as their studio godfathers, redefining “indie film” as big-budget prestige crap with established 50something directors or well-marketed quirk-fests for pseudo-hip suburban teens. Leave indies to indie filmmakers and indie companies and let the studios do their business. These bastard children deserve to die.
This.
(except the “die” part)
@m – Couldn’t agree more. The specialty divisions long ago became the home to overpriced, overstuffed vanity projects. Vanity projects that had neither artistic credibility nor box office appeal I might add.
Even worse is the film festival circuit. Where once they were discovering the next Tarantinos and Soderbergs, now they’re just marketing “tools” for the next Tarantino or Soderberg flick. Along with whatever George Clooney is putting out this year and some vanity docs made by A-list actors.
Time to get rid of these losers and open up the multi-plexes for a new generation.
WTF is going on at Disney? So sad to see how corporate they’ve become and so lacking in creativity. Glad it was a fun place to work when I was there….cuz it ain’t no more!
I’m not sure what point of view M is coming from, but regardless of what this person thinks about “the bastard children deserve to die” is completely wrong. Disney killing Miramax, just makes it even more difficult for everyone striving to make a film that isn’t absolutely commercial. Are you telling me The Queen was big budget? I can tell you for sure that it was not.
I love small indie films. I was in Sundance when Precious first screened (sitting in front of Harvey Weinstein talking out loud) and I can tell you that I knew I was watching a really difficult, but great indie film.
If you are are true indie filmmaker then go out and do your thing. Make it happen, but don’t blame (what it sounds like) your own personal frustration on the studios specialty divisions.
Go have a walk around the AFM next week. Walk the halls. Talk to the buyers and sellers and you’ll see how easy it is to sell indie films.
The bottom line: if it’s a great, true indie film that people want to see then that film will always
get picked up, but unfortunately there are more mediocre indie films. I’ve met many filmmakers that more times than not are delusion in regards to the quality of their own film.
So bottom line, it’s not a good thing when another specialty division shuts down.
PS
BTW – Miramax did not produce The Queen, Granada did. Same as My Left Foot. Miramax were distributors only on both, and again I can tell you for sure the budget were small on both. So there you go. One less US distributor for these kind of films.
LTL, maybe you’re really young, but I think the kind of indie films “M” is lamenting having been lost with the emergence (now death) of the studio specialty division were the indies of the 80′s and early 90′s. Not stuff like The Queen. “M”‘s comments were spot-on. Independent film will only get interesting again when it’s truly outsider once more and doesn’t promise to make some arrogant 25 year old rich overnight and on the cover of magazines.
I say Disney start from scratch and appoint Miley Cyrus as CEO
Disney hasn’t been a fun place to work since Frank Wells died
Agreed.
Ahahahaha….”M”s comment was awesome.
Here is the problem:
DVD’s for sale at joe liquor shop in compton, illegal downloading across the board, the movie industry is hemorrhaging and dying a quick death,
case in point
we just finished an action film with a 80MM budget, a list stars, director, producers ect
we were promised 100MM in marketing and guess what ????? the studio said pass so……..
the film is going straight to DVD, no marketing, no movie premier, we have been trying to find 100MM for marketing outside the studio and investors, hedge funds that were remotely qualified last year are now broke, they are doing 10MM and under in marketing with 2-10MM films
as long as there is illegal downloading, bootlegging ect the the studios, major and indie are going to skip on theatrical releases and you are going to see more and more a list films going straight to DVD with less production value
the next project I am working on will be under 10MM so the alist stars are going to have to take a cut, and from there the domino effect will take place……
btw I now understand why tyler perry has and will continue to do very well in this day and age and the more hollywood tanks the richer he and others with the same business model will get wealthier by the minute
You are right on the money Prod3234
Hmmm…I’m not totally buying this. Nothing personal. 80MM film going straight to DVD? I don’t see anything about this in the trades…maybe the news isn’t official yet, but still.
Also, hedge funds are now making money again…since the smart ones bought in at the bottom the market.
I’m not saying you’re not telling the truth. I’m saying that you’re exaggerating the death of the film industry. Maybe your movie turned out poorly…but the theaters in my neighborhood are still packed every weekend.
Good movies (usually) find their audience. The truth is, very few good films are actually produced by Hollywood – which is mostly about opening-weekend marketing and tie-ins.
Ha ha, this is one of the funniest comments ever… you were promised 100 million in marketing and now it’s going straight to dvd.
a. that’s not true, never happened.
b. if it did, you are the worst god damn producer in the history of hollywood.
c. bootlegging is such a tiny slice of the problem, especially at Joe Liquor in Compton, they only have
old shit anyways.
Yeah, I think Hollywood has a lot more to worry it in terms of the Chinese who probably manufacture 2/3 of the DVD’s made worldwide than the kids on the street in South Central. (And Highland Park where I live.)
As far as an 80 mil flick that is going straight to DVD – I’d say it has to be pretty bad otherwise they they would at least take a 10 mil flyer out on P & A and put it in some theaters. IMHO.
I really liked this guy. He must have had serious words with Ross for such an about-face to happen.
Based on this, anyone who thinks Marvel isn’t going through a serious round of layoffs/restructuring once that deal is complete is an idiot.
This is terrible. I hope Daniel becomes his own mogul like Tyler Perry. These suits at Disney are dangerously stupid. They aren’t making widgets.
I wonder how much this had to do with the move to Los Angeles. I know it sounds like a small thing, but anyone who’s worked with Battsek understands he is a New York dude, not an LA dude.
@Stoked: Thanks.
@LML: You only proved my point. The Queen was written by an A List writer, directed by an A List director, and starred one of Britain’s most beloved talents. Miramax ate the Oscar bait and hopped on board. Which they had every right to do. But by rebranding Stephen Frears, the Coen Brothers, Ben Affleck, et al as “indie directors” Battske and Co. helped create an audience expectation of an “indie” movie as being nothing more than glossy, smart star-driven films. And before I get jumped on: I love Frears, I love the Coens, but the pseudo-indie world of specialty divisions has effectively shut out the next generation by making their micro-budget indies seem woefully amateurish.
And please, enough with The Queen. If Miramax didn’t release it, Focus would have. Or it would have just ended up on HBO, where it probably best belonged.
I didn’t prove anything for you. The Queen (and My Left Foot) were still small budget films. We are actually both saying the same thing. These small budget films directed by the likes of Stephen Frears are very different animals from the young, hungry film makers. There will be less for EVERYONE as there is now even less meat on the bone for EVERYONE.
Trust me if the “next generation” film maker makes a great film, the sharks will swarm and bite.
One of the problems in America (as opposed to most other countries in the world), is that we have absolutely no funding that develops and assists young film makers.
The problems are so much greater than you and I can even address here.
This is terrible news for the industry. One less distributor for smart and/or foreign films.
does anyone know the story with NY bus affairs? are any lawyers going to CA?
m-
you are dead on the money. the most exciting thing happening in film today are guys like the mumble corp who are making coppola’s prophecy of the “fat girl from kansas” come true.
btw, i read the queen when they were still looking for $$ and suggested to a certain hbo exec (later turned miramax) that she get involved but alas they passed. too small for them!
Now I had nothing to do with that movie but we are experiencing the same problem with ours, the movie is a great film but the marketing money is just not there
and as for the hedge funds tens of billions have been recently withdrawn across the board, the well is dry, why do you think spielberg reached out to india for help ????