Restructuring Miramax Losing 2 Top Execs

COMMENTS (20)

• Keri is one of–if not the–best people that this town has to offer.

  Comment by Annoying — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 12:50pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri is fantastic, and that’s a big loss. Best of luck to her.

  Comment by Ex-Mouse — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 12:57pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri is awesome… the Mouse House didn’t deserve her anyway. They should make her co-chair at Universal, er… Donna Langely? Really?

  Comment by Hollywood Goy — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 1:12pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri is the best exec I have ever worked with. A fan to writers. She loves smart work. This is such a drag. Wish they would hire her back at HBO. The place could really use her!

  Comment by Rebecca — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 1:32pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I think they saw the writing on the wall. Miramax is done, dusted, dead, is is no more, it is bereft of life, it has rung down the curtain and joined the choir invisible with Paramount Vantage and those other studio/indie hybrids. I fear that all that’s left for the company, is to clean off its slate, and then be permanently shut down. Leaving Fox Searchlight to dominate independent film even more.

  It’s a shame to see the company fade away like this, especially when they could still have done something with it.

  Comment by Furious D — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 2:04pm PDT  Reply to this post

• I agree 100% with Rebecca. HBO should bring Keri back to run the whole place. She’s as good as they come.

  Comment by HBO fan — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 2:19pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Maybe those two Sweinstein animals can buy it back at a discount. Georgina could sell some dresses to fund the fatman. Most of their ex-employees have vanished from the industry and would probably work for a hot lunch just to be a part of their stench again.

  Boy, this business has turned to shit in such a short time. Gimme back the 1970′s when women were taking care of the kids and the closets were jam packed.

  Just my 10%

  Comment by Mr. 10 Percent — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 4:13pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri is rad, and will land somewhere quickly.

  Comment by guy — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 5:23pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Diving Bell deserved the Oscar, and if it weren’t for Lawson, Miramax would’ve never had that movie.

  Comment by anonymous — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 6:22pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri is brilliant. HBO is fine but she should really be running a studio. Ask the filmmakers.

  Comment by Insider — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 6:28pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri is one of the absolute best — smart as a whip, and amazing with writers and directors. Wherever she lands, they’ll be lucky to have her.

  Comment by Yana — Monday October 5, 2009 @ 6:55pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri has the best taste in the business. If they are firing her, they are closing down. This is surely a sign of the apocolypse. Whomever hires her, gets a host of filmmaker relationships, of every stripe.

  Comment by lynda — Tuesday October 6, 2009 @ 9:39am PDT  Reply to this post

• Enough of the one-line comments kissing Keri’s butt. Y’all say she’s: “smart,” “fantastic,” “awesome,” “brilliant,” and “rad.” How the heck do you know? When she was handed unlimited budgets and HBO cache for over a decade it was easy for her to be “rad” because every A-lister wanted came calling for an automatic EMMY (HBO’s Marketing and Media relaitons out spend the other networks for these awards). However, after leaving the safety of Colin Callender’s shadow WHAT HAS SHE DONE? With more contained budgets and tighter purse strings at Mirimax, life as top dog hasn’t been so easy. Don’t forget, HBO afforded Keri a big sand box — many “smart” execs in this town would succeed with unlimited resources.

  Comment by keri lovefest — Tuesday October 6, 2009 @ 11:33am PDT  Reply to this post

  • I’m sorry , but you are wrong on Keri. Battsek was paralyzed and totally unable to make decisions. The greenlights rested with him, not Putnam. And he never new what company to make (or to be fair, what kind of company Disney wanted). Miramax has a pile of amazing projects that sat in the middle of nowhere — in spite of Putnams efforts to get them moving — because Battsek was frozen for more than a year. Excuse me, but it’s totally wrong that Keri was “in Colin Callender’s shadow” — that’s not how it was. One could argue it was the other way around —- talk to writers, directors, producers who have worked with Keri. There’s nobody better. Let the KERI LOVEFEST CONTINUE. And just watch, she will land and land brilliantly at the right place.

    Comment by underwater — Tuesday October 6, 2009 @ 12:14pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • I agree. Keri was effective at HBO even if it did take her two months to return calls. She was not at all distinguished in her transition to feature films, she revealed herself as first and foremost a starfucker, what a disappointment. But all in all, it was the wrong job for her–Daniel Battsek is a dick (unimaginative, asskisser, credit-taker), and he basically marginalized Keri in favor of that moron Kristin Jones. And the job was never going to be about development, Keri’s strong suit. She is NOT suited to run a film company, except maybe a small production company where she can develop 5 projects a year and get a movie made every now and then.

    Comment by sara — Tuesday October 6, 2009 @ 3:31pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Miramax stopped press screening their product outside of the coasts last week, so they’re pretty much over. I know many film outlets who’ve now stopped covering Miramax films due to this offensive cost-cutting measure.

  Comment by Ryan S — Tuesday October 6, 2009 @ 11:33am PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri Putnam is seriously THE BEST IN THE BUSINESS. She is so smart, so creative — she’s a real filmmaker. All I know is whoever lands her will be a lucky SOB. If you’re making a movie, Keri is the best ally you can have. I can’t wait to see where she lands next.

  Comment by underwater — Tuesday October 6, 2009 @ 11:57am PDT  Reply to this post

• Keri is a good exec, there are a few in town but she certainly was better off at HBO. But since the new Miramax began they haven’t had one success that wasn’t Scott Rudin related. Their acquisitions flopped and their productions lost money… Cheri, Adventureland, Blindness, Smart People, City of Men, Becoming Jane, Venus, Eagle V Shark, Hoax, Extract etc – all big money losers, mostly bad films.

  Gone Baby Gone was at Disney before, Rudin’ s contributions- The Queen- Rudin recut it, Doubt, No Country for Old Men, There will be Blood!

  Have Rudin run Miramax! Wouldn’t that make Harvey happy!

  Comment by Walt — Tuesday October 6, 2009 @ 4:13pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Poor Peter Lawson. Dude loses or leaves his job and no one gives him a pat on the back.

  Comment by GC — Tuesday October 6, 2009 @ 8:58pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • A third of the team that sunk MIramax. Congrats on your new title: Fired.

    Comment by JC — Friday October 30, 2009 @ 12:45pm PDT  Reply to this post