Content area
Full Text
Could it be that Miramax Films-the feisty independent company behind such controversial adult-oriented movies as "The Crying Game," "sex, lies, and videotape," "Truth or Dare" and "Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!"-is shedding its edgy image and going PG?
Well, not exactly.
But in a move to augment their already successful specialty film business, company co-founding brothers Bob and Harvey Weinstein decided this week to launch Miramax Family Films, which debuts Sept. 16 with the release of its first in-house produced family film, "Into the West."
This doesn't mean the New York-based independent, purchased four months ago by the Walt Disney Co., has any intention of abandoning the kind of provocative pictures on which it has built its name over the past years. "That ain't ever going to happen," Bob Weinstein said. "This is like an adjunct, an extension of the core business we already do."
Even prior to its acquisition by the premier family brand-name studio, Miramax decided to jump on the family entertainment bandwagon in order to diversify and capitalize on what is becoming an ever-growing movie-going market. Bob Weinstein, who is spearheading the effort, stressed that Miramax is not interested in making or competing with broad-based, commercial family movies like "Home Alone," but rather will concentrate on modestly budgeted, "high-quality, classic kind of family movies that have a smartness and intelligence to them while also being entertaining."
The Miramax co-chairman said it plans to release one or two family films a year, each costing between $5 million and $15 million.
Its first release, "Into the West," a $6-million Irish fable Miramax co-financed with London-based Majestic Films, will open nationwide in 600 theaters.
Further down the line, Miramax Family Films will give birth to a...