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The Weinstein brothers, whose exit from The Walt Disney Company was sealed this week, are seeking to raise between $350 million and $500 million from outside investors and as much as $500 million more in debt to finance the new company.
Among their long-term plans are the launch of a movie cable channel and the production of Broadway shows adapted from some of the films they produced as founders and co-chairmen of Disney’s Miramax film unit.
The Weinsteins, who will leave Disney formally when their contract expires in September, are expected to inject some of the estimated $130 million they will receive from their settlement with the company.
They have hired Goldman Sachs to help to raise the rest of the money and formed an advisory board that includes media investment banker Steven Rattner, Paul Tudor Jones, the billionaire hedge fund manager, and James Dolan, the chief executive of Cablevision, the US cable operator.
Paul Newman and Robert Redford, who starred in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, are acting as advisers along with Dirk Ziff, the billionaire media heir. Hollywood directors including Quentin Tarantino, Anthony Minghella and Kevin Smith are already making films for the start-up venture.
The Weinsteins plan to release between 15 and 20 films a year, some of which will be coproduced with Disney. But Harvey Weinstein said that the new company would be “a fully integrated media company” with reach into publishing and the internet.
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