Weinstein Company, Miramax team up to pillage their past glories.

It's not a little sad and a lot ironic. Say what you will about Bob and Harvey Weinsten and Miramax, but they made their fortune and glory in the 1990s by making or distributing quirky and offbeat material, original stories with often original ideas. They gave us The Crying Game, Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love, From Dusk Till Dawn, Clerks, The English Patient, and many more. And they sold them to a mass audience, earning genuine box office returns and a parade of awards in the bargain. But the Weinsteins are now but a shadow of their former selves, and Miramax is now just another distribution arm of Disney. So, in an attempt to return to past glory, to once again put the Weinstein brothers at the top of the film world, they are teaming up with Miramax to... loot their library for sequels, sequels, and more sequels. Nice.

The two companies released a press statement today, announcing the intent to mine the old back catalog for sequels and television spin-offs. There are already three somewhat reasonable sequels already set for release: Scream 4 (April 15th, 2011), Spy Kids 4 (August 19th, 2011), and Scary Movie 5 (TBD). But new to this mix are a flurry of mid-90s and early-2000s films that are set to get the sequel/TV treatment. Among them are Rounders, Shakespeare in Love, Copland, Swingers, Shall We Dance, Bad Santa, Bridget Jones's Diary (which has one sequel) The Amityville Horror (which was a remake of a long-running horror series), From Dusk Till Dawn (which already have a direct-to-DVD sequel and a direct-to-DVD prequel), Clerks (which already had a sequel and an animated series).

To be fair, the cast/crew behind Rounders and Bad Santa have been discussing sequel possibilities for years. But was anyone, anywhere chomping at the bit for yet another From Dusk Till Dawn or the next saga in the Copland saga? And good luck to whomever gets to write a sequel to Shakespeare In Love. That a company that was once famous for taking challenging material and marketing it to a wide audience now sees fit to make their new fortune with a parade of remakes and spin-offs is a testament to where the industry is right now. They see the success of Avatar and scream 'make everything 3D!'. They see the success of Inception and scream 'remake Total Recall!'. Let's just say we're darn lucky that we're not getting sequels to Pulp Fiction or The Crying Game. The press release is below.

Scott Mendelson

MIRAMAX ANNOUNCES PARTNERSHIP WITH THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY TO PRODUCE SEQUELS

SANTA MONICA and LOS ANGELES (December 16, 2010) –Miramax and The Weinstein Company (TWC) today announced an agreement to create sequels to some of Miramax’s best-known properties and to partner on potential new television shows and special edition home entertainment products.

The first films to be produced under the agreement will be sequels to Bad Santa, Rounders and Shakespeare in Love. The other potential sequels and TV projects are Bridget Jones’s Diary, Copland, From Dusk Till Dawn, Swingers, Clerks, Shall We Dance, and The Amityville Horror. This partnership augments an existing relationship between the companies on such franchises as Scream 4 (to be released April 15, 2011), Spy Kids 4 (to be released August 19, 2011) and Scary Movie 5.

In addition, Miramax will handle digital distribution on select sequel projects. Miramax and TWC have also agreed to develop new, special edition materials for Blu-ray releases, such as roundtables featuring cast and directors.

“We are very close to these films and the new management of Miramax also feels that we are in the best position to create sequels that are at once worthy and compelling in their own right,” stated TWC’s Harvey and Bob Weinstein. “We look forward to working with Mike and his team on getting these films into production as soon as possible, and extending our partnership in the years ahead.”

Mike Lang, CEO of Miramax, stated: “We are thrilled and honored to work with Harvey and Bob Weinstein. There is no better partner to build on these great films and turn them into franchises, while also creating exciting new TV properties. This agreement will extend the Miramax library while also enabling us to create new content without committing near-term capital.”

“This is the perfect addition to our ongoing slate, giving us the ability to work on already existing franchises that have had such lucrative success at the box office, as well as a great starting ground to our newfound relationship,” stated TWC COO David Glasser. “We clearly believe it will be mutually beneficial for both companies.”