EXCLUSIVE: When Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen launched their producing partnership with 1999′s Sam Mendes-directed American Beauty and shared Best Picture Oscars on their very first film, they probably should have quit right then and there since it was never going to get better than that. Instead, they lasted 12 years, but Jinks and Cohen tell me they have decided to amicably break up their Jinks/Cohen Company. “We’ve had a great 12 years, but we’ve both decided that we want to explore on our own,” Jinks and Cohen told me. Jinks is forming The Dan Jinks Co and keeping Nick Nantell as VP of development, while Cohen is forming Bruce Cohen Productions.

The duo will continue to work together under their Warner Bros.-based television company, and say they intend to see through several feature projects that include the Catherine Hardwicke-directed Hamlet with Emile Hirsch attached to the Ron Nyswaner script, My Name is Jody Williams, with Audrey Wells directing her script, and the Robin Swicord-scripted The Rivals, a period drama that once had Steven Spielberg attached to direct.

Besides the 5-time Oscarwinner American Beauty, Jinks and Cohen produced the Gus Van Sant-directed Milk, the Tim Burton-directed Big Fish, the mystery thriller The Forgotten, the John August-directed The Nines, and the misfire Down With Love. Their Jinks/ Cohen banner was long located at DreamWorks, then moved to Paramount. That deal ended during the WGA strike and since then they have been Warner Bros-based for their TV output including Pushing Daisies, which won 8 Emmys before ABC canceled it, Traveler, another series for ABC, and Side Order Of Life for Lifetime.

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