Disney Close to Miramax Sale
Posted July 9, 2010 05:45 AM by Juan Calonge


Walt Disney StudiosWalt Disney Company has reportedly reached an agreement in principle to sell Miramax Films and its 611-film library to construction executive Ron Tutor; a formal announcement is expected within the month. For the first year, Walt Disney Studios will distribute its movies until a new distribution operation has been formed. Overseas distribution is expected to be handled by Morgan Creek.

This would mark the end of a protracted process since Disney put the specialty film label up for sale in January. In April, an agreement was almost reached with supermarket magnate Ron Burkle (working with Miramax founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein), but the talks collapsed.

The Miramax library includes many acclaimed and Academy-award winning titles, such as Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love and The English Patient, as well as major foreign-language titles such as Life Is Beautiful and Amélie.

Miramax Films was heavily downsized in late 2009 and later shut down altogether.

Apart from catalog releases, the new Miramax could produce several new movies every year. However, insider sources quoted by Deadline Hollywood deny that.