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Miramax Era Comes to an End
by Reg Seeton
What was once an exciting new era of film led
by Miramax and founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein
is now officially over, as Disney announced the
doors of Miramax will be closed this week after
significantly downsizing the company's Indie offices.
Miramax offices in New York and Los Angeles will
be shutting down, leaving 80 Miramax employees
out of work. The news of the Miramax closing also
throws into question the six remaining Miramax
films that were left in question when the plan
to shut down Miramax was initiated late in 2009.
As of Thursday, January 28, The
Wrap reports that the six films awaiting distribution,
which include Last Night, The Debt, and The Tempest,
will be shelved. However, in an update
to the original story, a Disney spokesperson
chimed in with enlightening details, "A Disney
spokeswoman called to protest that Miramax is
not 'dead.' 'Miramax will consolidate its operations
within Walt Disney Studios, and will be releasing
a smaller number of films than in previous years.
But it will continue to operate within the Walt
Disney Studios.'"
 Although
there's been back and forth on the remaining
films under the Miramax umbrella, and Miramax
may live in some small form, it doesn't change
the future and the decision already made to
shut the Miramax doors.
One filmmaker to feel the impact of the Miramax
closing is writer/director Kevin Smith who shared
his thoughts on his blog at The
Wrap. "it was a 20th century Olympus: throw
a can of Diet Coke and you hit a modern-day
deity," Smith confessed. "And for one brief,
shining moment, it was an age of magic and wonders.
I'm crushed to see it pass into history, because
I owe everything I have to Miramax. Without
them, I'd still be a New Jersey convenience
store register jockey. In practice, not just
in my head."
After establishing Miramax over 30 years ago, founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein left Miramax in 2005 to form The Weinstein Company. Despite the shutting down of Miramax, the company has left a huge imprint on the history of film that revolutionized the industry via such movies as Sex, Lies, and Videotape, Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs, The Crying Game, Clerks, The English Patient, Good Will Hunting, Shakespeare in Love, and many, many more.
Miramax may be gone for now, but it certainly won't be forgotten.
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