Weinsteins' Miramax funding still intact

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - There is a tiny spark of life left in Harvey and Bob Weinstein's dream of reclaiming Miramax Films, the movie brand they named 31 years ago after their parents, Miriam and Max, but the light is flickering.

For the Weinsteins to succeed requires two things that appear unlikely at this moment: the current leading bidders, investment firm Colony Capital and construction magnate Ronald Tutor, must falter; and Miramax owner Disney must take a lower price, which it hasn't been willing to do in months of talks.

Disney has made it clear it values Miramax at $700 million. The winning Tutor/Colony offer was $675 million, according to sources. The Weinsteins' last offer with investor Ron Burkle, which Disney declined, was $565 million. Other investors were spurned who offered about $550 million.

It seemed the brothers' final spark might have been extinguished Friday when the New York Post reported that Fortress Investments, another financial backer, was "out of the picture."

The lead on the Post story said, "There will be no second chances for the Weinsteins." The Post, citing "a source with direct knowledge" of the Miramax negotiations, predicted that the Colony group would announce the closing of their Miramax deal Wednesday, which is when Tutor/Colony's nondisclosure agreement with Disney.

But Fortress issued a statement late Friday saying that the report was "patently false," and that Fortress remained committed to funding the Weinsteins' and Burkle's bid for Miramax.

If the Tutor/Colony deal closes Wednesday, the money would come from equity investments by Tutor, whose day job is CEO of Tutor-Perini construction, and Colony Capital, led by chairman and founder Tom Barrack, whose online bio credits him with overseeing placement of $45 billion in assets for his investors.

The deal was brought to Tutor by David Bergstein, CEO of Pangea Media Group, who has taken a back seat in the final stages of talks since Tutor brought in Colony as a partner. Instead, former Disney CFO Richard Nanula, now a partner at Colony, led the negotiations with Disney.

This investment might mean Tutor will take a more active role in movies. Over the past half-dozen years, Tutor has been a silent partner to Bergstein in Capitol, ThinkFilm and other deals; but in an interview two weeks ago, Tutor said he will be more involved and that Bergstein (who remains an adviser on the sale) won't have an operational role in the new movie studio.

Tutor/Colony minority investors include Jim Robinson, CEO of Morgan Creek Prods., which apparently is in line to handle foreign sales for the proposed studio; and Gulf Capital, an investment firm in Abu Dhabi, which has been involved since Bergstein put the deal together for Tutor in April.

Tutor had said that actor Rob Lowe would not be part of the buying group, but the "Brothers and Sisters" star said in an interview last week that he is involved. "We are right now in very heavy negotiating with Disney, and we're governed by all these nondisclosures, so really all I can say is that it's real, it's on, it's happening," Lowe told Zap2it. "I think it's going to close, and it's going to be really, really exciting."

But if the Tutor/Colony deal falls through, the Weinstein consortium is ready to reopen talks. The Fortress statement said the group has "ample financial backing to successfully pursue an acquisition of Miramax."

The Weinsteins' ace in the hole was supposed to be their 2007 exit agreement with Disney, which sources at their new studio Weinstein Co. continue to insist requires the brothers' approval before anyone else can remake a dozen of Miramax's key franchise movies including "Halloween" and "Scary Movie."

Tutor said in an interview two weeks ago that their group doesn't believe it needs the Weinsteins' approval for the sale of the assets or to remake those movies. If Tutor/Colony does close, the Weinsteins are likely to assert those claims, keeping the sparks flying.