Weinstein Brothers To Collaborate On New Digital-Release Movie Label

Two notorious Hollwood heavy-hitters have partnered with two film distribution visionaries, and the four combined hope that they can change the way film fans get their movies.

A press release distributed by The Weinstein Company - imprint of mogul brothers and former head Miramax Studios honchos Bob and Harvey Weinstein - announced that the pair will collaborate with former Magnolia Pictures execs Tom Quinn and Jason Janego and open an as-yet-unnamed New York-based label that will specialize in releasing movies across both digital and traditional platforms.

According to the press release, Quinn and Janego will serve as the label's "Co-Presidents."

 "It's an exciting time in filmmaking; technology has made film a more democratic medium than ever, for artists and audiences. There are just so many great movies being made all over the world, and the new digital platforms make it possible for more people than ever to see them," the release quotes the Weinsteins.

"We are thrilled about launching this new label with Tom and Jason at the helm: not only are they innovators with a deep understanding of all things digital, they're two guys who love movies like we do. In a lot of ways, this label is an expansion on the work we've been doing for more than 20 years, and with Tom and Jason aboard we think it will chart a path into the future."

Quinn and Janego were once respectively Senior VP and Head of Business & Legal Affairs at Magnolia.

During their tenure together, the studio in 2005 was among the first to release movies simultaneously to DVD and select theaters with the rolling-out of Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble" and the hit documentary "Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room." That model continued over the ensuing years with the releases of James Gray's "Two Lovers," Neil Marshall's "Centurion," Takashi Miike's "13 Assassins," Alex Gibney's "Client 9" and "Freakonomics."

Now, that same model could be applied to the mainstream-successful TWC library. Among other successes, the brothers have spent years successfully collaborating with popular directors Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez to distribute films including "Clerks 2," "Inglourious Basterds," "Scream 4" and the upcoming "Spy Kids: All The Time In The World" via TWC's resources and the brothers' Dimension Films imprint, the ownership of which they retained when they exited Disney-owned Miramax in 2005. The Weinstein Company has also successfully released the family-friendly "Hoodwinked" computer-animated features.

The press release claims that Quinn and Janego's first duty as president will be a Toronto Film Festival scouting trip this month, hoping they can acquire promising films for the hybrid on-demand/traditional release platform.

"Our experience in digital distribution has been eye-opening and inspiring; we see it as a new frontier for studios and for independent filmmakers of every stripe," the release quotes the pair as saying.

"It makes perfect sense that the godfathers of modern independent cinema, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, would be the first studio chiefs to launch a business dedicated to these new platforms, and we are thrilled to be working alongside them in this new venture. We can't wait to get going."