Earlier today, Peter wrote up a piece on movie mogul Harvey Weinstein explaining how The Weinstein Company created their division Third Rail as a dumping ground for movies they feel have only "ancillary value." Harvey and his younger brother and business partner, Bob, have been under a bit of an attack since ditching Disney/Miramax for their own shingle back in 2005, with a lot of sharks swimming the waters surrounding them, just waiting for enough money to bleed through the Weinstein's fingers.

An article over at the Sunday Telegraph by Tom Teodorczuk goes into some fairly good detail about the troubles facing the beleagured brothers. You can read the full piece yourself to see his analysis; suffice it to say that the Weinsteins have yet to bring that old Miramax magic to their independent shingle, probably for a variety of reasons, not the least of which include the troubles facing the indie film world generally. As Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeff Wells, quoted in the piece, notes, "The Weinsteins have suffered from the same pressures affecting the indie film sector that everyone else faces. There is a glut of product owing to hedge fund firms now investing in films."

No! For the love of God, make it stop!

According to Variety, Dimension Films is remaking that whimsical 80's classic Short Circuit. S.S. Wilson and Brent Maddock, the writers behind the original two films, are set to write the remake. The film will reportedly be similar in theme to the original, but will factor in advances in technology. (Really? Last I checked, we didn't have sentient robots who could be your pal!)

This has to stop. I'm too young to see my childhood paraded before me like this, a demented nightmare of what once thrilled and delighted me. I loved this movie. It has honestly been a long time since I saw it, so I doubt it has held up -- but I love my memories of it. I also cherish my memory of the sequel. My parents took me to see it, it was a sold out showing. And I think it was only ten or twenty minutes in before I realized how horrible it was. I do believe it was the first time I was exposed to the realization that sequels were made for money, and were often wretched. Up until then, all the sequels I had ever seen (which probably amounted to Empire Strikes Back) were awesome and worthy continuations of characters I adored.

I realize I'm probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but this trend has to stop. What's next? The Goonies? Gremlins? The Karate Kid? Big Trouble in Little China? Oh no, I've given them ideas.

Well, well ... seems the scales may finally be tipping in the WGA's favor here. First the fall of the Golden Globes, and then the news that Tom Cruise and Paula Wagner's United Artists were making a side deal with the WGA similar to the deal struck earlier with David Letterman's Worldwide Pants. Now the Weinsteins, according to this story in the New York Post, are also close to making a "me too" deal, and Deadline Hollywood Daily is also tossing out rumors of Lionsgate and Lucasfilm coming around.

Neither Cruise nor the Weinsteins are stupid; making independent deals with the WGA can only give them a huge advantage over the major studios, and the more the independents strike deals, the more like arrogant assholes rich guys the moguls look. And you've gotta love any deal that makes Tom Cruise and the Weinsteins look like the nicest guys in the room, right?

It seems as though the WGAs strategy of making deals with the independent studios might not have been such a bad idea after all ... could this signal the beginning of the end of the writer's strike? Stay tuned ...

In an attempt to grab a taste of every niche market out there, the Weinstein boys are looking to go where no Jew has gone before -- their forming a faith-based distribution label, and have partnered with Christian shingle Impact Entertainment on a first-look production deal. Yes folks, the Weinstens are on a quest to find Jesus in hopes the man will bring them lots and lots of money. Is it just me, or is this whole deal just a tiny bit odd? Then again, the Weinsteins are businessmen, and if there's a hungry audience out there, you bet they're going after them -- regardless of whether or not they celebrate Chanukah.

In a deal that's similar to the one they forged with Black Entertainment Television founder Robert L. Johnson (oh yes, the boys have officially gone urban as well), The Weinstein Co. will finance, co-produce and distribute approximately six theatrical titles per year, as well as a number of straight-to-DVD releases through their homevid label Genius Products. Oh, but they're not the first giants to jump into the holy water-filled pool, Fox has already announced their own faith-based division, FoxFaith, in which the studio will help distribute (but not produce) 12 films per year.

The first two theatrical gigs for TWC will be adaptations of The Penny, by Joyce Meyer and Deborah Bedford, and The Christmas Candle, by Max Lucado. Says Bob Weinstein about the deal, "This is a rapidly emerging and important area in the entertainment industry, and this deal fits perfectly into our strategy of acquiring and producing films that target niche audiences." I have no problem with that, so long as they eventually throw us Jews a bone too. Oh wait, perhaps that's asking a bit too much from a couple of boys named Weinstein. Oh well.

Last week, there was a lot of controversy surrounding the announcement that Harvey and Bob Weinstein are producing a gala event to honor Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr. After all, the Weinsteins are known for their support of the Democratic party and for their distributing liberal-sided docs like Fahrenheit 9/11 and the new Barbara Kopple film Shut Up & Sing. So, what are they doing hobnobbing with the enemy of their friends? The official reason is that the Weinsteins support Scott's new efforts to sustain environmental friendliness, but a number of people are pointing out other reasons the brothers might desire a good relationship with the retail company.

Radar has a report on some of these reasons, which include the Weinsteins' hopes for priority placement in Wal-Mart's stores and their need for Wal-Mart to go easier on movies depicting sex and drugs. Variety more specifically addressed the Weinsteins' recent control of Genius Products, which will be making straight-to-video, family-friendly films that cater well to Wal-Mart's demographic. Wake-Up Wal-Mart has gone so far as to write a letter of disapproval to the Weinsteins.

So, now what happens when Michael Moore, who is already a critic of Wal-Mart, decides his next activist doc is against the stores? Will the Weinsteins still support their golden boy?

In related news, SpielbergFilms.net is pointing out that Wal-Mart is now selling Poltergeist on DVD for less than $5. It's things like this that make it hard for moviefans to keep up a hatred for the stores, but I think we can all hold out for next year's 25th Anniversary edition, right?

At the Traverse City Film Festival, Michael Moore finally talked in practical terms about his health care film, Sicko, for the first time. Though he's clearly passionate about exposing the problems with American health care, Moore still seems to be struggling a bit with the film -- after all, he says, "everyone knows that health care is a mess in this country." His goal, then, seems to be less education than motivation: Moore hopes that Sicko "pushes health care to the top of the public agenda" and, presumably, forces politicians to get involved. The problem, though, is that all the health care companies know exactly who Moore is, so the moment he shows up to document the struggles of a family dealing with an outrageous situation, "they get free health care." According to Moore, "There has been a 100% success rate of the people we're filming of getting whatever they need from the HMOs, pharmaceutical companies, whatever." Well, that's progress. Now all we have to do to fix things is have Moore travel to all the families with complaints, and the health care issue will be solved, right?

In addition to the pressure of simply pulling the film together, Moore is facing high expectations, from both his supporters and his bosses, Harvey and Bob Weinstein. According to Moore, the pair have been securing financing for the film by telling potential investors that it will gross $40 million, a total that would make Sicko the third highest-earning documentary of all time. Whoa. I mean, it's nice for bosses to have confidence and all, but couldn't they have said, like, $15 million? At this rate, ending up the fifth most successful doc ever would make Sicko a failure to its investors.

The Brothers Weinstein have a soft side? Who knew? Apparently so, because The Weinsten Company is set to bring Unstable Fables, an irreverant take on classic tales.  TWC is partnering with the Jim Henson Company, Flame Ventures and Prana Studos for the CGI-animated, direct-to DVD series. The first three titles on the boards are Goldilocks, The Three Little Pigs and The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

All lthis brought to mind one of my fave childrens' series, Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theater, a marvelous series on Showtime back in the '80s, wherein Duvall told classic fairy tales, acted out by some of the most famous actors of our time. The Faerie Tale Theater version of Goldilocks starred Tatum O'Neal as the title character, with Carole King as her mother. Hansel and Gretel starred Rick Shroeder as Hansel and Joan Collins as the mean stepmother. Here's hoping that the Weinsteins have plans just as unique and interesting as Faerie Tale Theater.

Just a few weeks after the ugly Crash producer debacle went public, another best picture-winning film is finding itself in court. According to Martin Richards, founder of The Producer Circle Company, Miramax is screwing him out of $10 million (give or take a few million) of profits that his co-producer credit for Chicago should have earned. In his lawsuit, Richards claims that his company owned the movie rights to the musical, and that co-producers Bob and Harvey Weinstein have refused to pay him the percentage he is owed. The core of Richard's suit is his claim that, though his contract terms guaranteed him a percentage of gross profits (figured before expenses are taken out), the Weinsteins are trying to pay him based on net profits (with expenses taken out - obviously a much smaller figure). So far, Richards claims he has been paid only $500,000 ("$300,00 as a producing fee and $200,000 when the movie passed its 'first cash break even level'").

Looking for a The Lord of the Rings of their very own, the Weinstein brothers have acquired the rights to a series of five martial arts novels by Wang Du Lu. Collectively known as the Crane-Iron Pentalogy, the books gained exposure to a world-wide audience (though that audience probably didn't know it at the time) when the fourth in the series was used as the source for Ang Lee's wildly successful Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The planned movies - the most exciting of which will inevitably be Precious Sword, Golden Hairpin - will function as prequels and a sequel to Lee's film.

In addition to crowing about how these upcoming marital arts films are "an opportunity to do something revolutionary" (What that means is anyone's guess - cast Asian actors in Hollywood? Make a movie with the word "hairpin" in the title?), the Weinsteins also announced tentative plans to create a stage version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Yikes. Why do I immediately think of Andrew Lloyd Webber and a completely inappropriate emphasis on visual effects?

Harvey and Bob Weinstein have reached an agreement with Toshiba that their spandy-new company, The Weinstein Company, will support the HD DVD format. The boys based their decision on a number of factors, most notably that they think they can make more money by supporting the format. In a mutual statement, the brothers said, "We are impressed by Toshiba's technology and very much look forward to working with them."

The Weinstein Company will have a slew of films coming out on DVD, including Kevin Smith's new film The Passion of the Clerks, School for Scoundrels, with Billy Bob Thornton, and Grind House, which will unite one of my fave directors, Quentin Tarantino (who, hopefully, will not be acting in the film) with one of my least fave directors, Robert Rodriguez (yeah, I know Sin City rocked, but I still haven't forgiven him for the 90 minutes of my life I wasted screening The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D).