Miramax Films, the mini-major studio that produced multiple Oscar winners like The English Patient, Chicago and Pulp Fiction, as well as genre box offices hits like Scream, indie classic Clerks and Irish flick My Left Foot, has shut down.
Harvey and Bob Weinstein started the company in the 80s and built it to a major force in Hollywood. When they sold the company to Disney in 1993 for $70 million, they still had creative control, but continually bumped heads with then Disney CEO Michael Eisner. Ultimately the firction would lead the brothers to starting another shingle, The Weinstein Company, which has thus far struggled to produce any box-office hits.
Clerks director Kevin Smith told The Wrap "Miramax wasn't just a bad-boy clubhouse, it was a 20th century Olympus: throw a can of Diet Coke and you hit a modern-day deity." He added "for one brief, shining moment, it was an age of magic and wonders. I'm crushed to see it pass into history, because I owe everything I have to Miramax. Without them, I'd still be a New Jersey convenience store register jockey. In practice, not just in my head."
Co-founder Harvey Weinstein also told The Wrap, "I'm feeling very nostalgic right now, I know the movies made on my and my brother Bob's watch will live on as well as the fantastic films made under the direction of Daniel Battsek. Miramax has some brilliant people working within the organization and I know they will go on to do great things in the industry." 80 people are now out of work, and two films, The Tempest (with Russell Brand and Helen Mirren) and The Debt (starring Sam Worthington) are officially in limbo.
