Walt Disney Studios closed down the arthouse studio Miramax Films today after 31 years of developing indie films.
New York and Los Angeles offices were shut down and 80 employees are out of a job. A representative for Disney told The Wrap the studio isn’t entirely dead, but will be rolled into the operations of Walt Disney and release far fewer films than before. Semantics.
Under Bob and Harvey Weinstein, Miramax helped make the careers of Steven Soderbergh (Sex, Lies, and Videotape), Quentin Tarantino (Reservoir Dogs), Matt Damon and Ben Affleck (Good Will Hunting), Jon Favreau and Vince Vaughn (Swingers), and Kevin Smith (Clerks) to name a few. The latter called it a once “20th century Olympus [in] an age of magic and wonders. I’m crushed to see it pass into history, because I owe everything I have to Miramax.”
The Weinsteins have expressed interest in buying back the company that bears their parent’s names (Miriam and Max), but Disney wants to sell the entire package including the library. Disney CEO Bob Iger said he’d be willing to let it go for a mere $1.2 billion.
It’s unclear what will become of the approximately six movies Miramax was developing for 2010. Two movies starring Sam Worthington, Last Night and The Debt, will hang in limbo as Disney decides whether to ditch them, release them, or sell them to interested parties.
One such curious company is Summit Entertainment, the small studio that has Twilight money to burn. Deadline.com learned their in the “very preliminary” stages. So far they’re the only company putting feelers out to Disney.
The news comes just a year and a half after the folding of specialty studios Warner Independent Pictures, Picturehouse, and New Line Cinema. Are indies in trouble now more than ever?
