Harvey Weinstein moves to Osage County

The Weinstein Co. has acquired worldwide film rights to the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play “August: Osage County” and will produce a feature adaptation. TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein will join Jean Doumanian and Steve Traxler as producers of the pic, with playwright Tracy Letts doing the adaptation. Weinstein said his company will fully finance and distribute the film with an eye toward a 2011 release. – from Variety

The Weinstein Company (TWC) has acquired the worldwide rights to produce and distribute the feature film adaptation of the multiple Tony Award-winning play August: Osage County. Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of TWC, will serve as one of the producers on the film. Weinstein will join Jean Doumanian Productions and Steve Traxler, president and co-founder of Jam Theatricals, who had previously signed on to produce.

Weinstein is a co-producer of the Broadway production of August: Osage County; Doumanian and Traxler are lead producers as are Jeffrey Richards and Jerry Frankel who are on board to executive produce the feature film adaptation.

The film is currently in development, with playwright Tracy Letts, who won the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for August: Osage County, writing the script. The winner of five 2008 Tony Awards, including Best Play, and the 2008 Pulitzer Prize, the critically acclaimed August: Osage County premiered in summer of 2007 at Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theatre and debuted on Broadway in December 2007.

“This is such an extraordinary piece of material, which comes along once in a great while,” said Weinstein. “I was blown away by Tracy’s play and believe our movie will likewise have an incredible resonance with anyone who has ever been a part of a family. I’ve worked with Jean before and I am a big fan. I’m looking forward to working with her and Steve on this picture.”

“I am very pleased to have the opportunity to work with Harvey Weinstein again on August: Osage County — we had previously worked together on films such as Bullets Over Broadway and Everyone Says I Love You. I greatly respect his taste as a filmmaker and a distributor,” said film and theatre producer Jean Doumanian. “I know he is equally passionate about Tracy Letts’ wonderful play, which has spoken to so many people, and I look forward to collaborating with him on the film adaptation.”

“Tracy Letts wrote a great American play and we look forward to making it into a motion picture. We envisioned this as a film before we opened on Broadway and I am so pleased to be working with Tracy and Harvey to make this a reality,” said Traxler.

Ben Famiglietti, vice president of production and development, originally brought the play to Weinstein, who immediately signed on as a co-producer of the Broadway production. Famiglietti also brought the movie rights to TWC. Famiglietti and Rob Scheidlinger, executive vice president of production and business affairs, will oversee the production on behalf of TWC. Patrick Daly, Vice President of Production and Development at Jean Doumanian Productions, will liaise with TWC on August: Osage County.

Scheidlinger negotiated on behalf of TWC, George Sheanshang negotiated on behalf of Doumanian, Traxler, Richards and Frankel.

August begins an eight week engagement at London’s National Theatre on November 21, 2008. The national tour of August launches in Summer 2009.

Exodus at Weinstein Co.

With little fanfare, several of the Weinstein Co.’s top founding film executives are departing the company with no imminent replacements for their positions.

Executive vps/co-heads of acquisitions and production Michelle Krumm and Maeva Gatineau quietly left the indie distributor three weeks ago. Production president Michael Cole and senior vp production Carla Gardini will be following suit in the next few weeks. Executive vp marketing Gary Faber is expected to depart by the end of the year.

In short, TWC will momentarily find itself without heads of production and acquisitions. The company said it is planning to replace them.

- from THR

Scott Rudin leaves ‘Reader’

After a long and bruising battle with Harvey Weinstein over Stephen Daldry’s “The Reader,” producer Scott Rudin is leaving the project and taking his name off the film.
Weinstein and Rudin have never gotten along. They clashed over Daldry’s 2002 “The Hours,” also written by David Hare, and again over the post-production schedule of “The Reader.”

Rudin, the winner of the best picture Oscar for last year’s “No Country for Old Men,” had first tried to push the World War II romance starring Kate Winslet back to 2009, because he didn’t want to campaign for an Oscar along with “Doubt” and “Revolutionary Road,” which also stars Winslet.

- from Variety

Rudin and Weinstein issue Oscars truce over ‘The Reader’

Looks like Kate Winslet will continue to ride two Oscar ponies on the best actress derby track.

Forget the vicious gossip you’ve been hearing that Scott Rudin is battling behind the scenes to stop Harvey Weinstein from pushing up the release of the film they produced together, “The Reader” so it can land in this Oscar derby. Rudin also produced “Revolutionary Road,” which stars Kate Winslet too and is a major contender for Oscars.

Some of the rumors have been juicy. One is that Rudin will trip Harvey up with a nasty lawsuit. Another claims that Winslet told Harvey that, if he continues with this reckless plan to release “The Reader” on Dec. 12, she’ll refuse to do any Oscar campaigning. Actors, remember, can be nominated for only one film per category, and it’s logical to assume that she’d prefer to be nominated for her role in “Revolutionary Road,” directed by her husband, Sam Mendes (Oscar champ, “American Beauty”). Read more about both pix HERE.

Another rumor claims that Harvey’s so hellbent to get “The Reader” out in time for the next Oscars that he’ll release it in December even if it’s not quite finished. The film was still in rough cut when it was screened recently in Manhattan, generating such positive reax that Harvey pushed up its release. It’s true that “The Reader’s” director has another major, timely demand weighing on him right now: Stephen Daldry is rushing to debut the stage adaptation of “Billy Elliot” on Broadway Nov. 13.

But to clear up all of these dramas, Rudin and Weinstein just issued this notice: “We are issuing this statement together to emphasize the fact that we are in complete agreement on the date we have chosen to release ‘The Reader.’ Working together, we developed a plan to extend the post-production schedule in order to give Stephen Daldry the additional time he needs to successfully complete the film in time to release it on December 12, 2008.”

- from LAtimes

Universal eyes Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards”

From Variety:

Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Bastards” may soon find a home at Universal.

Studio is in negotiations to partner with the Weinstein Co. to bring the World War II drama to the bigscreen. Although deal points are still being ironed out, insiders say a pact is imminent.

The “Pulp Fiction” helmer and Harvey Weinstein met with five studios last week about co-financing the film, and it came down to Paramount and Universal. Par, which wanted to distribute the film in foreign territories, balked at a component of the pact that dealt with how grosses would be accounted given the way that Tarantino’s “Kill Bill” contract was structured.

Weinsteins’ Hollywood star begins to fade

From UK:

Death Defying Acts, a new $20m biopic of the magician Harry Houdini starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Guy Pearce, had a less than magical release in the US last weekend, writes Tom Teodorczuk in New York

Released by Third Rail, a distribution label of the Weinstein Company run by film mogul brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, the film debuted with minimal fanfare and no premiere, in just two cinemas nationwide, grossing a paltry $5,000.

It was a far cry from five years ago. Then, Zeta-Jones won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role in Chicago, the film adaptation of the hit musical, produced and released by Miramax, the film company founded by the Weinsteins in 1979.

Under their leadership, Miramax was the leviathan of the independent film scene, taking home Best Film Oscars for Shakespeare In Love and The English Patient, in addition to Chicago.

In November 2005, when the Weinstein brothers acrimoniously split from Disney, their former corporate owner, to go it alone, the smart money was on their company swiftly becoming the most successful independent movie company in Hollywood.

Goldman Sachs raised $1.2bn for the Weinstein Company on Wall Street, no doubt envisioning that the Miramax Midas touch, which fused critical acclaim with commercial success in producing and distributing the likes of Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting, would extend to the new entity.

But somehow things have not quite followed the script. The bombastic Harvey, 56, and his bashful younger brother Bob, 53, appear to be up against it.

Harvey Weinstein Broadway Bound

After years as a featured player on the legit scene, Harvey Weinstein is stepping into a leading role.
The Weinstein Co. — a minority co-producer on the season’s Tony-winning play and play revival, “August: Osage County” and “Boeing-Boeing,” respectively — has developed an ambitious slate of stage projects, likely to kick off with the upcoming tuner version of “Finding Neverland” in 2010, followed by a stage incarnation of Pink Floyd album “The Wall.”

Also in the hopper are musicals based on Miramax pics “Shakespeare in Love,” “Chocolat,” “Cinema Paradiso” and “Shall We Dance.”

Since he helped bring the 2000 revival of Tom Stoppard’s play “The Real Thing” to Broadway and then became involved the following year in Mel Brooks’ “The Producers,” Weinstein has, both personally and with the production company he runs with his brother, Bob, invested in and produced legit fare, albeit maintaining a low-key role in the creative process. For the upcoming slate of projects, however, he’s laying plans for TWC to take the reins.

“Now it’s time for us to really take the lead on things,” Weinstein said. “We own all these properties that lend themselves to musicals.”

- from Broadway

Weinsteins Resurrect The Alchemist

The Alchemist, Paul Coelho’s best-selling novel about a shepherd boy following his treasure-hunting dreams and meeting the mysterious titular figure, has had several thwarted attempts at transferring to the big screen. But the Weinstein Company came to its rescue in Cannes this morning, with Harvey Weinstein announcing that he will produce the adaptation, which will be co-produced and directed by and star Laurence Fishburne. An “Academy Award-winning screenwriter” is in negotiations to write the script.

- From Empire

Harvey Scissorhands meets Seven Samurai

With “The Forbidden Kingdom” set to open wide Friday, the Weinstein Co. divulged a few more details Tuesday about the products of its $285 million Asian Film Fund.
The two highlights:

“Shanghai” will be directed by Mikael Hafstrom (”1408,” “Derailed”) from a script by Hossein Amini (”The Wings of the Dove”). The story, set in 1941 China, will star John Cusack, Gong Li and Ken Watanabe. Shooting will begin May 5 in London, then move to Thailand and possibly China. The film will be released in North America on Christmas Day.

“Seven Samurai” will start shooting in the fourth quarter for release in 2009. The cast will feature American, European and Asian stars, and a director is in advanced talks with TWC.

“Kingdom,” the Jet Li-Jackie Chan starrer that’s the first pic to come out of the fund, will be jointly distribbed by Weinstein and Lionsgate in the U.S., U.K., Spain, France and Latin America.

Harvey Weinstein said “Kingdom,” “Shanghai” and “Samurai” are ideal titles to launch the fund. They “highlight our commitment to providing international filmmakers with a global platform and will blaze the trail for high-quality, action-packed, Asian-themed adventures,” he said.

Via Variety

Harvey Weinstein enjoys Good Things with Gosling, Dunst and Langella

The Weinstein Co. has closed a deal on North American rights to helmer Andrew Jarecki’s love story-cum-murder mystery “All Good Things,” about a Gotham real estate dynasty in the 1980s. Pic is the debut feature helming gig for Jarecki (docu “Capturing the Friedmans”). Ryan Gosling, Kirsten Dunst, Frank Langella and Jeffrey Dean Morgan star.

Via Variety