The saga to sell Miramax Films seems to (finally) be drawing to a close.
A fresh round of reporting says that Disney has closed a deal to sell their longtime specialty film division to a coalition of industry folks. And, while other publications have reported a Disney deal for Miramax in recent months, Sharon Waxman of Hollywood industry website The Wrap says that this time the sale is sealed.
“Los Angeles billionaire Ronald Tutor and his partners Morgan Creek, Colony Capital and David Bergstein have reached agreement to buy Miramax from The Walt Disney Company,” Waxman’s The Wrap reported this afternoon from Los Angeles. “The sale price is believed to be $675 million.”
“This is for real,” Waxman told indieWIRE a few minutes ago, shortly after a posting touting her site’s report of the deal. “All our exclusives have been correct. It’s the real deal.”
Conflicting details of the deal are emerging as journalists await final confirmation from Disney.
Tutor will run the company and its 700 film library, according to The Wrap. It reported that David Bergstein, the controversial figure at the center of recent lawsuits surrounding ThinkFilm, will also have a role.
A Disney spokesperson has not yet responded to indieWIRE’s request for comment.
The Hollywood Reporter is also reporting a Disney sale of Miramax, pegging the sale price at $650 million for the reported 611 film library.
The sale of Disney’s Miramax would bring to a close a month’s of negotiating and speculating. Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who founded the company in the late 1970s and named it after their parents Miriam and Max, sold the company to Disney in the ’90s and left the unit nearly five years ago. The Weinsteins were actively negotiating to regain control of Miramax, ultimately losing out to another group of buyers.
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