The Weinstein Company is in talks to sell to a private equity company in the wake of the sexual harassment and assault allegations against its co-founder Harvey Weinstein.
The film production business has entered into an agreement with buyout firm Colony Capital to secure an “immediate capital infusion”, as the company fights for its future.
The Weinstein Company said that it has also entered negotiations with Colony Capital for a “potential sale of all or a significant portion” of the company’s assets.
“We believe that Colony’s investment and sponsorship will help stabilise the company’s current operations, as well as provide comfort to our critical distribution, production and talent partners around the world,” said Tarak Ben Ammar, a board member at the Weinstein Company.
At the weekend Bob Weinstein said in an interview with the Hollywood Reporter that the company “had good enough finances” and was preparing to adopt a new name that would have no links to the tarnished Weinstein brand.
Bob Weinstein told Hollywood reporter that he had no idea about “the type of predator that he [Harvey Weinstein] was” and was sickened by his brother’s seeming lack of remorse. “I have a brother that’s indefensible and crazy,” he said. “I want him to get the justice that he deserves.”
The Weinstein’s have produced a string of box office and critically acclaimed hits, with credits including The King’s Speech, Shakespeare in Love and Silver Linings Playbook.
However, the allegations against Harvey Weinstein – who has been accused of sexual misconduct from more than two dozen women and three of rape – has made the company a pariah and forced its management into a sale.
Weinstein has now been accused by more than a dozen women of making unwanted sexual advances or of touching them sexually without their consent. He has said many of the details of those public accounts are inaccurate and he has denied accusations of criminal sexual harassment, rape and sexual assault.
Sallie Hofmeister, a spokesperson for Weinstein, said: “Any allegations of non-consensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr Weinstein. With respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual.”
Colony Capital said that it intends to return the Weinstein Company to its “rightful iconic position” in Hollywood.
“We believe the company has substantial value and growth potential, and we look forward to working with the company’s critical strategic distribution and production partners to help preserve and create value for all stakeholders, including its employees,” said Thomas Barrack, founder and executive chairman of Colony Capital. “We will help return the company to its rightful iconic position in the independent film and television industry.”
Barrack is a longtime friend, ally and donor to Donald Trump, and headed the president’s inauguration committee.
On Friday Amazon Studios, which has suspended its content chief Roy Price over sexual harassment allegations, severed ties with the Weinstein Company and ditched a series starring Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore.
On Saturday Weinstein was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, only the second time in history that the 90-year-old organization had expelled a member. “What’s at issue here is a deeply troubling problem that has no place in our society. The board continues to work to establish ethical standards of conduct that all Academy members will be expected to exemplify,” the Oscars organization said in a statement.
Colony Capital is a previous owner of film studio Miramax which it bought from Disney for $660m (£497m) in 2010 and sold to Qatari broadcaster BeIn Media last year. Bob and Harvey Weinstein founded Miramax, the studio behind films such as Pulp Fiction, No Country for Old Men and The English Patient, three decades ago and sold it to Disney in 1993.
Harvey Weinstein, 65, was the public face of Miramax and continued that role at the new studio, while, Bob, 62, headed Dimension, their genre label, turning out movies like Bad Santa and the Scream and Scary Movie franchises.
The Weinstein Company’s last big hit was Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained in 2012 - which made over $425m at the box office, according to industry tracker Box Office Mojo, topping the $414m brought in worldwide by The King’s Speech in 2010. But the studio has struggled over the last two years, both at the box office and at the awards ceremonies. Movies including The Hateful Eight, The Founder, Leap! and Tulip Fever were commercial failures.
