The Weinstein Company

Rob Marshall's musical Nine is about to get Fergalicious (or maybe Glamorous?) Black Eyed Peas alum Fergie is in negotiations to sing in the Weinstein-produced movie-musical. If she accepts, the first-time actress will get hot and heavy with Hollywood heavyweight Daniel Day-Lewis as Saraghina, a woman who seduces Mr. Day-Lewis' character (Guido) into the world of sex, according to Variety.

The musical's plot is based on a play by Italian writer Mario Fratti and was inspired by Federico Fellini's 1963, Oscar-winning film 8½. Mr. Day-Lewis's character, a film director, will review the women he has loved and lost after his most successful film leaves him drained for new ideas and his 40th birthday approaches. Marion Cottilard, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Sophia Loren and Judi Dench are set to play the ladies in Guido's life.

The movie will begin filming in October in the U.K.

Harvey Weinstein is trying to squash rumors about The Weinstein Company's financial troubles in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter:

Weinstein said he's "bullish" about the company's current prospects.

Was that "bullish" or "bullsh.."?

"We're well financed, and every one of these new productions has been budgeted out."

He is referring to projects like Project Runway, and Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards. The Weinstein Co. recently made a new pay channel deal with Showtime and will soon be distributing all of their own films. Genius and Blockbuster are providing home video distribution and, yesterday, they made an exclusive deals with international TV casters like Sky Italia.  read more »

Prepare to see lots of Weinstein movies on Showtime soon. Starting with its 2009 release schedule, including Nine with Daniel Day-Lewis and Quentin Tarantino's Inglorious Bastards "spaghetti western," the pay channel has signed an exclusive seven-year theatrical-movie-output deal with the Weinsteins. (By the way, Brad Pitt and Mr. Tarantino are allegedly meeting in France today to discuss a Bastards collaboration).

Showtime is thumbing their noses at Paramount Pictures, MGM and Lionsgate, which are canceling their output deal with the pay channel and starting their own separate TV network, set to kick off late in 2009.

Variety reports:

"This deal reinforces a strategy that will give us a diverse slate of films to go with our original series," said Matt Blank, chairman and CEO of Showtime Networks.  read more »

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Might we spot Harvey Weinstein picking up loose change off New York city streets soon? The man is on the financial outs, according to Nikki Finke on her blog Deadline Hollywood Daily. The media mensch thinks the rumors are true about The Weinstein Company's recent money troubles, since news broke about Harvey producing (not financially backing) Quentin Tarantino's movie Inglorious Bastards.

The movie, a World War II "Spaghetti Western," has been in the works since 2001 (originally with Miramax). But Ms. Finke said the script has been presented to four other studios, "Universal, Warner Bros, Paramount (all yesterday) and Sony (today)"

She writes:

This certainly adds fuel to those rumors that The Weinstein Co is having movie money woes.  read more »

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The Weinsteins are bringing it to Broadway, baby. Their company will produce a musical version of Finding Neverland for the stage in 2010 as well as a theater adaptation of Pink Floyd's The Wall.

Harvey Weinstein helped bring Tom Stoppard's play The Real Thing to Broadway in 2000 and then became involved the following year in Mel Brooks' The Producers. Since then, he has invested in many theater projects, including wildly popular August: Osage County. All along he has maintained "a low-key role in the creative process," according to Variety. But for the upcoming slate of projects, he's laying plans for the company to take control.

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

More musicals in the works include versions of Shakespeare in Love, Chocolat, Cinema Paradiso and Shall We Dance.

The Weinstein Co. has partnered up with old pal producer Meryl Poster to adapt Allison Winn Scotch's chick-lit novel Time of My Life into a movie. The Weinsteins just acquired the screen rights to the novel, which Random House will publish in October, according to Variety.  read more »

The Weinstein Co. is taking Fraggle Rock to the big screen! Jim Henson's classic series will become a live-action musical, directed by Hoodwinked! director Cory Edwards. The original show premiered on HBO in 1983 and ran five seasons. The Weinsteins, determined to get more cozy and "family-friendly" recently, are probably banking on a blockbuster opening, since the first three seasons were recently released on DVD to big sales. According to Variety, "core characters Gogo, Wembley, Mokey, Boober and Red [will be taken] outside of their home in Fraggle Rock, where they interact with humans, which they think are aliens." There will apparently be puppets and humans in the show but when we first heard this story, we couldn't help but wonder which actors would play the puppets. We think Carrot Top would make a good Red. And former Hobbit Sean Astin might make a good Wembley. That kind of movie might send kids screaming from the theater. (We're totally going to have the theme song stuck in our heads for the rest of the day, by the way. Sigh). More from Variety after the jump.  read more »

It's the revenge of the nerds! Or the Star Wars geeks anyway. They've unleashed their wrath upon the Weinstein Company for keeping a movie about their brethren, Fanboys, in limbo for the past two years. They've formed a grass-roots boycott of all Weinstein-produced films, organized bicoastal protests at screenings of its Friday opener Superhero Movie, and started a campaign to call Harvey "Darth Weinstein." All this for Fanboys, a movie about four diehard Star Wars fans who break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch in order to see The Phantom Menace on the eve of its release. It wrapped production two years ago and has been stuck in limbo as a tug of war between Harvey Weinstein and the filmmakers has been waged over competing versions of the movie. Weinstein said it will release the two versions on DVD, and a studio source later said that is exploring two theatrical versions.  read more »

The Weinstein Company will continue their love affair with Woody Allen and distribute his next movie, the romantic comedy/drama Vicky Cristina Barcelona, slated for release this fall. The company has released six of his films, including Cassandra's Dream, which is currently in theaters. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Vicky and Christina (Rebecca Hall and Scarlett Johansson), two Americans vacationing in the title's Spanish city, become part of a chain of romances involving an artist (Javier Bardem) and his nutty ex-wife (Penelope Cruz). A "steamy menage a trois sequence" between Mr. Bardem (yum!), Ms. Cruz and Ms. Johansson was the buzz abount town when the film previewed at the American Film Market in Santa Monica in November. Woody, some advice: Don't leave that scene on the cutting room floor!

Harvey Weinstein confirmed rumors that his independent film company, The Weinstein Company, negotiated an interim agreement with striking writers. Mr. Weinstein told The New York Times that his New York-based company had come to terms with the Writers Guild of America in a deal similar to the one reached last week by United Artists, the first independent movie company to reach an interim contract with the writers, who have been on strike since Nov. 5.  read more »

Genna Terranova, former Vice President of Acquisitions at the Weinstein Company, has joined the Tribeca Film Festival as senior programmer. While with the Weinsteins, she worked on Patrick Creadon's crossword documentary Wordplay, Barbara Kopple's recent documentary Shut Up and Sing, and Duncan Tucker's Transamerica starring Felicity Huffman.

Co-founder Jane Rosenthal also announced that the festival will create a year-round department: “Each year the number of international and domestic industry attending the festival increases and so we have created a year round department to service the needs of the industry and look forward to having Julie La’Bassiere head up this department," she said in a press release.

Full release after the jump.  read more »

Weinstein Books, the publishing imprint of Bob and Harvey Weinstein’s production company, has officially cut ties with Miramax Books, Weinstein Books president Rob Weisbach told The Observer today. The imprint has been part of Hyperion—Disney’s publishing arm—ever since the Weinstein brothers split from Disney two years ago.

The brothers agreed to temporarily retain some oversight of the Miramax imprint when they left Disney in 2005, in order to properly follow through on all the books they’d signed up before they left.

According to Weinstein Books president Rob Weisbach, he and his staff moved out of Miramax’s offices at 99 Hudson Street on September 30th and are now operating out of a new location at Cortlandt and Church Sreets.

On Tuesday night a small but achingly cool-looking crowd gathered outside the Chelsea West Cinema for the premiere of Control. The film profiles the life of Ian Curtis, frontman of beloved late-70's British post-punk band Joy Division, who committed suicide at age 23 on the brink of international stardom. It’s the full-length feature debut from Anton Corbijn, revered rock photographer, and was all the talk at the Cannes Film Festival last May, currently whipping the U.K. into hot lather for its debut on October 5th (it will open here October 12th at the Film Forum).  read more »

Todd Haynes' new film I'm Not There will have New York audiences seeing double in more ways than one.  read more »

Bob and Harvey Weinstein have activated a $285 millon fund for the acquisition and development of a slate of 21 films and 10 direct-to-video titles shot and directed over the next six years in Asia.  read more »

Even with a new company starting up, Harvey Weinstein has found time for real estate endeavors to ease the transition. Recently, the Weinstein Company purchased the old Miramax office in Tribeca. And now, Mr. Weinstein is buying a couple apartments at 55 Wall Street for the talent, according to the New York Post. Sam Waterston takes a break from his Law & Order duties to fight for a Chelsea seminary’s right to build a 17-story building. The Times discovers that “strangely organic yet somewhat self-consciously cutting-edge neighborhood” sprouting around the High Line. Ritzy restauranteurs, starchitects, and gallerists all get in on the action.

Not content with just building a hotel over the High Line (and dating Uma), André Balazs is developing a luxury condo near Wall Street.

Brighton Beach Russians say Net! to the smoking ban.

And York Prep students get ready for reality television.  read more »

-Michael Calderone

When the Weinstein brothers broke ties with Disney last April, there were a few matters that needed to be addressed, including real estate. As part of their settlement agreement, The Weinstein Company recently purchased a 3rd floor office at 375 Greenwich Street for $2.2 million, according to public records. Conveniently, the 6,930-square-foot office had been home to Miramax for several years. While Harvey and Bob might have to toss out the Mickey Mouse stationary, they can keep their hip, Tribeca digs. The Tribeca Film Center offices and Robert De Niro’s Tribeca Grill are located in the same building.

Now that they’ve avoided being tossed on the street with a cardboard box full of Oscars, the Weinstein brothers can continue gathering billionaire and celebrity investors for their post-Miramax filmmaking venture.  read more »

A Weinstein Company spokesperson declined to comment about the purchase.

-Michael Calderone