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2ND UPDATE, 7:45 PM: I’ve learned that the Weinstein/Ron Burkle/Fortress-Colbeck partnership is still bidding for Miramax. 
The group is meeting now — and sometime tonight it plans to submit a new and higher quote in the $615 million range, according to my sources. That number still has to beat the Gores brothers and the David Bergstein-advised Pangea Media group. But, if it’s acceptable, the Weinstein backers will ask Disney for an exclusive negotiating window. But neither a higher bid nor an exclusivity request has been sent to Disney yet. (Yes, TheCrap’s email alert just sent out is wrong. Then again, that little trafficked website is notoriously inaccurate…) Meanwhile, stay tuned to Deadline.
UPDATE 6:25 PM: I’m out of the office. But Disney is denying The Hollywood Reporter’s claim that the “Weinsteins Take Back Miramax”. The trade sent out an email alert for a story with that headline — to which Disney responded to me on the record just now, “No [Miramax] deal done and reports to the contrary are false”.
Look, it’s still very possible that the Weinsteins and their financial backers, supermarket tycoon Ron Burkle and hedge fund Fortress-Colbeck, may win the auction. Or it might be those other brothers, Tom and Alec Gores of Platinum Equity. Or Pangea Media. But Harvey and Bob will merely have a distribution relationship with the real owners of the Miramax name and library which the brothers will manage: their behind-the-scenes partners on the bid who actually put up the big bucks. The Weinsteins and their Weinstein Co didn’t put up a dime.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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is this why they haven’t released the many projects they have gathering dust, so they could scrape enough together to buy Miramax back? It won’t matter. They’ll continue to suck because they’re assholes who only have the occasional hit *despite* Harvey’s meddling and shitty taste, not because of him. I want to know what deal was made with satan himself that keeps these schmucks in business.
Nikke,
You forgot to mention Harvey’s other big partners – the ones who sunk $800 million into the troubled TWC!
I’m having a vision of the possible future if the Weinstein’s actually do get Miramax back…. It goes something like this…
BURKLE: Hi, Harvey, Ron Burkle here. I’m–
HARVEY: What the f*ck are you calling me about?
BURKLE: Well, the people at Fortress-Colbeck and I are concerned about how we spent over $600 million in cash, gave the company another couple of hundred mil in production and acquisition funding, and you haven’t released any of the movies you made or acquired over the past 2 years.
HARVEY: Are you trying to f*ck me! ARE YOU! You just shut the f*ck up! I built this f*cking company! I can f*cking destroy it! And you won’t get a f*cking dime out of this company! Don’t f*cking push me, or I’ll do it!
BURKLE: Come on Harvey, don’t be like that, we’re friends…
HARVEY: F*cking friends don’t go talking about their f*cking concerns about their multi-million f*cking investment behind my f*cking back! If I think it’s right to f*cking sit on a f*cking movie that I spent millions of your dollars on, I’ll sit on that f*cking movie! Now gimme another $300 million or I’ll f*cking sink Miramax, and you won’t get that f*cking Oscar I f*cking promised you!
BURKLE: Oh, Harvey, you so crazy. How can I say no to you?
It was more than just an email alert. I read the full story on the HR website an hour ago. Did they really get this story that wrong? Wow, embarrassing.
Sharon Waxman is notoriously inaccurate. Just ask the newsroom at the NYT, or better yet, look at all the corrections they had to run on her stories while she worked there.
Remember when she misidentified manager John Carrabino as Bob Weinstein in her Oscar story?
Now she’s presenting herself as an authority on Miramax? (shaking my head)
And, btw, her reporting is hilariously bad … she doesn’t even understand what an exclusive negotiating window is.
Hope those two pricks don’t get their company name back. Evil shouldn’t win out in this world (although, sadly, it does too often). All the directors they’ve fucked over in the past should pool together and buy the company and restore their films to the way they originally intended them. Of course, directors don’t usually make that much bank (unless you’re Bay, Scott Bros. or Spielberg).
Can you short a hedge fund? If so I will be doing it soon.
we’ve heard all the negatives about david bergstein. If you take a closer look at his competitors in this bidding war, you will very quickly recognize that he is the angel in this group. Talk to 99% of the people who worked for the weinstein’s and 90% of the people who worked with them and you’ll get a clear picture of who they are. As for the mysterious Gores, little is known now ,but as informationh is released,….not so good.Bergstein, who has gotten all the negative press, looks like the best option, and has made the highest bid. If I were a shareholder, the highest bid, would be good enough for me.