All About Harvey

Now that the MGM saga has been resolved and there seems to be little drama left in the guild negotiations, the media has turned their attention back to Disney. And what a full nest of stories that is: leadership changes, animation giants and indie stalwarts.

This weekend brings a confluence of coverage on the brothers Weinstein and the fate of Miramax. Three articles, including an interview with Harvey in New York Magazine, adequately summarize current events.

Basically, Miramax was acquired by Disney over ten years ago to continue what it had successfully been doing: acquire and finance smaller, critically acclaimed movies (in the $10 million and below range) that could be hugely profitable, without being costly losses. Flash forward a decade and Harvey Weinstein is making $80 and $100 million movies ("Gangs of New York", "Cold Mountain" and "The Aviator"), Eisner doesn't want to renew Harvey's contract or sell Miramax out to the Weinsteins.

This summer it looked like Bob would stay with Disney to run Dimension and Harvey would get a new pot of gold to mint movies from. Then the offer to Bob was insulting and the Weinsteins decided that they wanted to bring their case directly to the Disney board, especially given Eisner's impending exit.

What happens next is not clear to anybody, but as A.O. Scott points out in the Times, Miramax brought us corporate indie movie making and it won't go away if Miramax does...look at Focus and Sony Pictures Classic, among others and the new generation of independents like Newmarket.

In the Times, New York Magazine, Newsweek.