Harvey Weinstein can’t seem to catch a break.
Earlier last week, the Weinstein Company announced it would undergo another wave of layoffs before the end of the year, leaving TWC with approximately 120 employees. Then on Friday, president of theatrical films Tom Ortenberg has asked to be relieved from his contract.
Now a federal judge has ruled that the company does not have a written contract to distribute one of the most talked-about films on its fall slate, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire," the Los Angeles Times is reporting.
Scheduled for release on Nov. 6, "Precious" landed in legal hot water when it was sold following the Sundance Film Festival in January.
After Lionsgate announced that it had the rights to director Lee Daniels' account of a young black woman's personal life, TWC said that it had bought the film first, but that independent film sales agent John Sloss took it to Lionsgate for a better deal.
Two days later, the two companies sued each other.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed one of the four lawsuits that resulted from the dispute, saying there was no written agreement between TWC and the film's producers, Smokewood Entertainment Group.
"A signed writing is required to effectuate a transfer of copyright ownership," Buchwald wrote. "To the extent that [Weinstein Co.] alleges a purely oral agreement for the exclusive licensing and distribution rights to 'Push,' that claim clearly fails as a matter of law."
E-mails between TWC and Sloss’ Cinetic Media, Buchwald said, do not suggest any intention “to enter into a preliminary binding commitment to conclude the deal. Rather, they suggest nothing more than that [Smokewood] was considering the deal on the table between the parties."
Lionsgate attorney Patricia Glaser told the Times she would inform the judges overseeing the other three cases of Buchwald's ruling.
Weinstein did have good news with the sale last week of its recent “Inglourious Basterds” to TNT. Though terms of the deal were not disclosed, it was reported that the film could have gone for around $15 million after making $110 million in U.S. box office.
The company's next release is "Nine," a musical about a film director played by Daniel Day-Lewis who faces personal crisis and womanizes a slew of ladies including Penelope Cruz and Nicole Kidman, is slated for Nov. 25.
On the same day, the company is releasing "The Road," the post-apocalyptic story of a father (Viggo Mortensen) who travels across America with his young son.
Next year's slate includes the Michael Cera picture "Youth in Revolt," "Pirahna 3D" with Elisabeth Shue and Richard Dreyfuss and "Shanghai" with John Cusack.
