UPDATE (March 6, 3:35 p.m.): THE DEAL IS OFF, reports Deadline, who shared a statement from the investor group at the aforementioned link.
The result will most likely mean that TWC’s assets follow that path to a 363 bankruptcy, which would wash the assets of obligations and allow about 20 other suitors to pick the company’s carcass apart. This is awful news for those employed within the company, but it’s actually good news for us genre fans as many of the assets are going to be shopped around town as opposed to trapped between the new investors and the Bob Weinstein-led Dimension Films (as explained below).
Who will end up with Scream? Hellraiser? Children of the Corn? Watch this spot for further developments.
The Weinstein Company is officially changing hands as an investor group backed by billionaire Ron Burkle has reached a $500 million deal that will spare the troubled company from bankruptcy. While you can read the full deals of the arrangement over at Variety, here’s what’s horror important…
Genre label Dimension Films has survived the fallout. Here’s what’s going to happen: Bob Weinstein will depart the company under the agreement, and take the Dimension brand with him as well as one unreleased film, Polaroid.
On the other hand, the investor group will take possession of the Weinstein’s Co.’s 277-film library, including the Dimension titles. Another 125 titles were mortgaged to stave off creditors in 2010, and those will remain encumbered after the sale.
In layman’s terms, this means that Bob Weinstein is going to continue to make new genre films under the Dimension name, while Weinstein Co. has the rights to all previously released titles.
While that’s all pretty clear, what we don’t know is how a sequel or remake to Hellraiser or Scream would work. Who has the rights to derivative works? Do the companies still work together or does Bob take the franchises with him? This is a huge question mark that we’re going to try and find the answer to.
