A collection of unexpected announcements for you this Monday afternoon, all coming from the same place.
The Weinstein Company’s Bob Weinstein and Harvey Weinstein have reached a new muti-year deal with Miramax—the company the brothers founded in 1979 but departed in 2005 when they could not reach an agreement with then-owner Disney—Chairman Tom Barrack Jr. with plans to dust off some of the company’s classic titles and develop either sequels or TV series for them.
Right out of the gate, it’s being reported that sequels will now be developed for Best Picture Oscar winner Shakespeare in Love and poker drama Rounders, and that TV series based on Oscar-winning Good Will Hunting and Flirting With Disaster are in the works as well.
Of the announcement, Harvey Weinstein had this to say:
“It’s like unlocking a kingdom full of gold, which Tom describes as diamonds. In an age where there is so much demand for television, we see a lot of TV series. I personally have never made a sequel, but I will make Shakespeare In Love as one. I’ve always wanted to do that and now we have the impetus to. There is so much intellectual property, and we’re in an age where, for however long it lasts, content is king. Working with Qatar and Colony will for us be a great learning experience. Tom is one of the smartest businessmen in the world. We’ll learn by his side and we’re excited to work with Rob Lowe.I’ve discussed making Rounders 2 with Matt Damon and I would say that’s going to be instantaneous. The guys [writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman] have a great idea, a way to make it more international where you start the card game in Paris, that’s all I want to say. There might be a certain beautiful Parisian actress involved in it, and then we’re off to the racetrack and Vegas with Matty and Edward Norton, and a new supervillain to replace John Malkovich.”
As for the new Rounders 2 villain, it’s said that they want Robert De Niro for the role.
The deal will also involve shepherding some development projects, which includes a comedy titled The Alibi about a service that cleans up messes and creates cover stories for people having affairs that’s written by Stephen Colbert, and The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, which was previously being developed by the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack.
Are you interested in seeing any of these projects?
[Source: Deadline]
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment