[Smells Like News] Harvey Weinstein's Desperate Hunt For More Cash

It turns out Harvey Weinstein, the mogul behind Inglorious Basterds, is on something of a kill-crazy mission of his own. His Weinstein Co. is firing staff, not paying back some debt and tossing aside loan covenants, says the WSJ.

The bottom line, the Wall Street Journal adds, is that Weinstein needs a string of hits like Basterds — or $50 million in new money. The latter could be tough given another thing the Journal is reporting: that Weinstein failed to pay back a $75 million bridge loan earlier this year and is just piling up interest on the money. Basterds has racked up an impressive $111 million at the box office but, as noted here previously, it isn't saving Weinstein's ass because all the proceeds have to be split with co-producer Universal Pictures.

Weinstein's hopes for rescue when the big budget, Oscar-bait musical Nine opens this year appear to be diminishing with the rumor mill churning with word of a troubled post-production.

Weinstein's best hope for salvation is to dig deep down, past where his soul would be, and grab hold of that internal, obnoxious genius that empowers him to turn decent movies into great films. It would appear that digging process has already begun.

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Posted By sysop to Smells Like News at 9/25/2009 11:06:00 A
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