Word: miramaxers
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Your basic movie-mogul breakfast menu would include strawberries, decaf, a splash of Evian, maybe a Diet Coke. But Harvey Weinstein has never got with fit-for-life cuisine. One morning at the recent Sundance Film Festival, the co-chairman of Miramax Films eagerly devoured a greasy omelette (the secret ingredient: cholesterol) while schmoozing with a reporter about art, movies and life in general. It's been said that a family of four could subsist for a month on the crumbs that stick to Weinstein's shirt. That family may soon need to find other means of dietary support...
Weinstein, 44, and his partner-brother Bob, 42, had special cause to rejoice. Miramax corralled 20 nominations, more than any major studio and the most ever for an indie outfit. The English Patient, with enough sand and grandeur to make it Lawrence of Arabia with women, snagged 12 nominations. The Weinsteins have also scored in the real world of the box office. Scream, the teen horror movie made by their company's Dimension Films division, has scared up nearly $80 million--more than most of Miramax's nominated films. From its 1996 slate, the company has grossed $250 million...
...strong indie showing seemed a victory for a favorite hero of old Hollywood films: the nervy little guy. That can be misleading, since most of the "independent" companies are owned by media conglomerates: Miramax by the Walt Disney Co., Gramercy (which released Fargo) by Polygram, Fine Line (Shine) by Time Warner. October Films (Secrets & Lies) is partly financed by mighty Allen & Co., but despite rumors that it is open to a takeover bid, Bingham Ray vows to maintain autonomy. "We're at the peak of our game right now as a privately held, true independent," he says...
Harvey Weinstein has his own definition of independence. "It has always meant independent of the seven major studios," says Harvey, "and that's how we operate. Disney is our big daddy or rich uncle. Basically, they're our bank. You can say Disney or you can say Chase Manhattan." Miramax has the freedom to run its business so long as it works within budget guidelines and doesn't buy movies rated NC-17. "A hundred-percent freedom," says Disney CEO Michael Eisner. "They're completely autonomous. And they should be. They keep their costs down and their ideas up. They...
...Weinsteins also enjoy hondeling and hectoring. In 1993 Miramax heard that TIME was about to run a story revealing that Jaye Davidson, the "female" lead in The Crying Game, was a man (hardly a scoop, since Davidson had won an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor). Furious, Harvey called a top editor 18 times in one day in an unsuccessful attempt to keep the nonsecret a secret...