Bob Weinstein
{{Short description|American film executive (born 1954)}}
{{About|the film executive|the songwriter|Bobby Weinstein}}
{{distinguish|Bob Einstein}}
{{BLP sources|date=March 2022}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Bob Weinstein
| image =
| caption = Weinstein at the Los Angeles Film Festival
| birth_name = Robert Weinstein
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1954|10|18}}
| birth_place = New York City, U.S.
| occupation = {{flatlist|
- Film producer
- director
- writer
- businessman
}}
| years_active = 1979–present
| spouse = {{marriage|Anne Clayton|2000|2012|end=divorced}}
| children = 4
| relatives = Harvey Weinstein (brother)
| footnotes = {{cite web|url=https://www.cityfile.com/profiles/bob-weinstein|title=Bob Weinstein profile|publisher=cityfile.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429033001/http://cityfile.com/profiles/bob-weinstein|archive-date=April 29, 2011}}{{cite web|url=https://www.fandango.com/bobweinstein/biography/p116276|title=Bob Weinstein Biography|publisher=fandango.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160507140933/http://www.fandango.com/bobweinstein/biography/p116276|archive-date=May 7, 2016}}{{cite book|title=Das große Personenlexikon des Films|first=Kay |last=Weniger|year=2001 |publisher=Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf |isbn=3-89602-340-3}}
}}
Robert Weinstein (born October 18, 1954), is an American film producer. He is the founder and head of Dimension Films, former co-chairman of Miramax Films and The Weinstein Company (TWC), all of which he co-founded with his older brother, Harvey. He has focused on making action and horror films.{{Cite web|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/movie-mogul-wife-seeks-divorce-order-protection-article-1.1057625|title=Film producer Robert Weinstein's wife files for divorce, seeks order of protection|last=Ross|first=Barbara|date=April 6, 2012|website=New York Daily News|access-date=September 10, 2019|archive-date=August 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200808161604/https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/gossip/movie-mogul-wife-seeks-divorce-order-protection-article-1.1057625|url-status=live}}
Early life
Weinstein was born in Flushing, Queens, in New York City. He was raised in an Ashkenazi Jewish family.Lurie, Rod. [https://www.thewrap.com/blog-entry/1494 "Harvey Weinstein Gets My Criticism of "The Reader" Wrong"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219062451/http://www.thewrap.com/blog-entry/1494 |date=February 19, 2012 }} The Wrap. February 21, 2009Renee, Ghert-Zand (March 6, 2012). [http://blogs.forward.com/the-shmooze/152519/weinstein-awarded-french-legion-of-honor/ "Weinstein Awarded French Legion of Honor"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141204151912/http://blogs.forward.com/the-shmooze/152519/weinstein-awarded-french-legion-of-honor/ |date=December 4, 2014 }}. The Jewish Daily Forward. His parents were Max Weinstein, a diamond cutter,{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/movies/miriam-weinstein-died-miramax.html|title=Miriam Weinstein, Mother and Backbone of Original Miramax, Dies at 90|last=Gates|first=Anita|date=November 3, 2016|work=The New York Times|access-date=November 4, 2016|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=November 7, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107133132/http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/04/movies/miriam-weinstein-died-miramax.html|url-status=live}} and Miriam (née Postel).{{Cite web|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2003/04/max-weinstein-200304|title=All Thanks to Max|last=Weinstein|first=Bob|date=February 7, 2011|website=Vanity Fair|language=en|access-date=September 10, 2019|archive-date=December 5, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141205093233/http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/features/2003/04/max-weinstein-200304|url-status=live}} He grew up with his older brother, Harvey Weinstein, in a housing co-op named Electchester in New York City. and attended John Bowne High School like his older brother.{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/young-harvey-weinstein-signed-a-high-school-yearbook-new-york-state-prison-1089208/|title=Young Harvey Weinstein Signed a High School Yearbook From "New York State Prison"|first1=Scott|last1=Johnson|website=The Hollywood Reporter|date=February 28, 2018|access-date=August 20, 2021|archive-date=August 20, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820163035/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/young-harvey-weinstein-signed-a-high-school-yearbook-new-york-state-prison-1089208/|url-status=live}}
Career
Bob, his brother Harvey Weinstein, and Corky Burger independently produced rock concerts as Harvey & Corky Productions in Buffalo through most of the 1970s.{{cite book |title=Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance and the Rise of Independent Film |last=Biskind |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Biskind |year=2004 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=0-684-86259-X |pages=[https://archive.org/details/downdirtypicture00bisk/page/463 463–464] |url=https://archive.org/details/downdirtypicture00bisk/page/463 |url-access=registration }}{{cite news|last=Mason|first=Ian Garrick|title=When Harvey met Mickey|work=New Statesman|date=October 11, 2004|url=http://www3.sympatico.ca/ian.g.mason/Harvey_Weinstein.htm|access-date=January 11, 2007|archive-date=February 16, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216170039/http://www3.sympatico.ca/ian.g.mason/Harvey_Weinstein.htm|url-status=dead}} Both Weinstein brothers had grown up with a passion for movies, and they nurtured a desire to enter the film industry.
In the late 1970s, using profits from their concert promotion business, the brothers created a small independent film distribution company called Miramax Films, named after their parents Miriam and Max. The company's first releases were primarily music-oriented concert films, such as Paul McCartney's Rockshow. In the early 1980s, Miramax Films acquired the rights to two British films of benefit shows filmed for the human rights organization Amnesty International. Working closely with Martin Lewis, the producer of the original films, the Weinstein brothers edited the two films into one movie tailored for the American market. The resulting film, released as The Secret Policeman's Other Ball in May 1982, became Miramax's first hit. The movie raised considerable sums for Amnesty International and was credited by Amnesty with having helped to raise its profile in the United States.
The Weinsteins slowly built upon this success throughout the 1980s with arthouse films that achieved critical attention and modest commercial success. Harvey Weinstein and Miramax Films gained wider attention in 1988 with the release of Errol Morris' documentary The Thin Blue Line, which detailed the struggle of Randall Adams, a wrongfully convicted inmate sentenced to death row. The publicity that soon surrounded the case resulted in Adams' release and nationwide publicity for Miramax Films. The following year, their successful launch release of Steven Soderbergh's Sex, Lies, and Videotape propelled Miramax Films to become the most successful independent studio in America.{{citation needed|date=October 2017}}
Miramax Films continued to grow its library of films and directors until, in 1993, Disney offered Harvey and Bob $80 million for ownership of Miramax Films. Agreeing to the deal that would cement their Hollywood clout and ensure that they would remain at the head of their company, Miramax Films followed the next year with their first blockbuster, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.
1996 brought Miramax Films' first Academy Award for Best Picture with the victory of The English Patient. This would start a string of critical successes that would include Good Will Hunting and Shakespeare in Love.
On March 29, 2005, it was announced that the Weinstein brothers would leave Miramax Films on September 30 and would form their own production company, The Weinstein Company (TWC).{{cite web|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2005/03/weinsteins-leaving-miramax-will-form-new-company-brothers-taking-dimension-label-leaving-all-fil-78326/|title=Weinstein's Leaving Miramax, Will Form New Company; Brothers Taking Dimension Label, Leaving All Fil|last1=Indiewire|last2=Indiewire|date=March 30, 2005|access-date=December 18, 2018|archive-date=October 13, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171013120422/http://www.indiewire.com/2005/03/weinsteins-leaving-miramax-will-form-new-company-brothers-taking-dimension-label-leaving-all-fil-78326/|url-status=live}} Five years later, in 2010, Disney sold Miramax Films to the Qatari group Filmyard Holdings, who in turn sold it to another Qatari entity, the beIN Media Group, in 2016.{{citation needed|date=January 2020}}
On December 4, 2017, Bob Weinstein filed a trademark application for Watch This Entertainment.{{cite web |title=WATCH THIS ENTERTAINMENT - Trademark Details |url=https://trademarks.justia.com/877/07/watch-this-87707377.html |website=JUSTIA Trademarks |publisher=Justia |access-date=March 11, 2020 |archive-date=August 5, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805080421/https://trademarks.justia.com/877/07/watch-this-87707377.html |url-status=live }} Almost two years later, Weinstein announced his new production company to the world, with a focus on "family films, comedies and upscale adult thrillers", and a first project of an animated feature titled Endangered, with Téa Leoni serving as co-producer and voicing a lead character.{{cite news |last1=Sperling |first1=Nicole |title=Bob Weinstein, Brother of Disgraced Mogul, Starts New Production Company |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/media/bob-weinstein-production-company.html |access-date=March 11, 2020 |work=The New York Times |date=October 12, 2019 |archive-date=January 20, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200120230501/https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/12/business/media/bob-weinstein-production-company.html |url-status=live }}
Personal life
Weinstein has been married and divorced twice. He married Anne Clayton, a former book editor, in 2000. They lived in a large apartment in The Beresford at 7 West 81st Street on the Upper West Side. Clayton filed for divorce in April 2012, and sought a protective order because she feared "bodily harm". Weinstein issued a statement from Washington-based interventionist Don Sloane, denying that Weinstein was a danger to his wife, and alleging that she was reacting to a family intervention conducted to address her alcoholism. Her lawyers denied that she suffered from any addiction and said that Sloane was her husband's "paid agent" and that the two had never met.
Sexual misconduct allegations
In October 2017, Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment by Amanda Segel, who had worked as a showrunner on the Weinstein Company-produced Spike TV miniseries The Mist. Segel alleged that Weinstein had made several unwanted sexual overtures to her beginning June 2016 and continuing for three months.{{cite web|first=Cynthia|last=Littleton|url=https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/bob-weinstein-sexual-harassment-1202592165/|title=Bob Weinstein Accused of Sexual Harassment by TV Showrunner|work=Variety|date=October 17, 2017|accessdate=May 19, 2022|archive-date=May 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519004416/https://variety.com/2017/tv/news/bob-weinstein-sexual-harassment-1202592165/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|first=Patrick|last=Hipes|url=https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bob-weinstein-accused-sexual-harassment-192647546.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABBS9rujoOitCOChV15TgZLgePQ-4LjYcryeXLd0pCR8n6r-P9REDVu0vtPGY-iV2VPlXUDzc4u_eE3ZdgX-QSII-r4uUIb-dPs8JEfwUVLbO4jn0g4u_a8LHb9vuinEaaaTOw3PxB5LPYHXCo8WAoCgGms7V0bil2Op9z9jtWzC|title=Bob Weinstein Denies Sexual Harassment Claims From 'The Mist' Showrunner|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=October 17, 2017|accessdate=May 19, 2022|archive-date=May 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519121706/https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/bob-weinstein-accused-sexual-harassment-192647546.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABBS9rujoOitCOChV15TgZLgePQ-4LjYcryeXLd0pCR8n6r-P9REDVu0vtPGY-iV2VPlXUDzc4u_eE3ZdgX-QSII-r4uUIb-dPs8JEfwUVLbO4jn0g4u_a8LHb9vuinEaaaTOw3PxB5LPYHXCo8WAoCgGms7V0bil2Op9z9jtWzC|url-status=live}} Weinstein's attorney Bert Fields issued a statement denying the allegations.{{cite web|first=Bryn|last=Sandberg|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bob-weinstein-accused-sexual-harassment-by-tv-producer-1049705/|title=Bob Weinstein Accused of Sexual Harassment by TV Producer|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=October 17, 2017|accessdate=May 19, 2022|archive-date=May 19, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220519122319/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/bob-weinstein-accused-sexual-harassment-by-tv-producer-1049705/|url-status=live}}
Segel's allegation came in the context of the much more high profile sexual abuse cases against Weinstein's brother, Harvey. In October 2017, Bob spoke about the allegations of sex crimes against his brother, saying he was "sick and disgusted" by Harvey's actions. Bob denied any foreknowledge of his brother's crimes before the allegations became public, but acknowledged that Harvey had a history of extramarital affairs and verbal abuse towards family members, and claimed that he himself was subjected to Harvey's verbal and physical abuse. Bob further said he had rarely spoken to his brother in the previous five years because he "could not take his cheating, his lying and also his attitude toward everyone".{{cite news |last1=Belloni |first1=Matthew |last2=Kilday |first2=Gregg |date=October 14, 2017 |title=Bob Weinstein Gets Emotional on "Depraved" Harvey, Saving the Company and His "Waking Nightmare" (Exclusive) |work=The Hollywood Reporter |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/bob-weinstein-gets-emotional-depraved-harvey-saving-company-his-waking-nightmare-1048905/ |access-date=August 20, 2021 |archive-date=August 20, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210820163034/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/bob-weinstein-gets-emotional-depraved-harvey-saving-company-his-waking-nightmare-1048905/ |url-status=live }}
Selected filmography
= Executive producer =
= Producer =
- Playing for Keeps (1986)
- Restoration (1995), co-producer
- Mimic (1997)
- Reindeer Games (2000)
- Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), co-producer (uncredited)
- Bad Santa (2003)
= Director =
- Playing for Keeps (1986)
= Writer =
- The Burning (1981)
- Playing for Keeps (1986)
Broadway credits
Note: In all productions Weinstein has functioned as a co-producer with other producers.
- The Real Thing (2000 revival) – play – produced by Miramax Films – Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival of a Play
- The Producers (2001) – musical – Tony Award for Best Musical, Drama Desk Award for Outstanding New Musical
- Sweet Smell of Success (2002) – musical – Tony Nomination for Best Musical, Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding New Musical
- La bohème (2003 revival) – opera – Tony Nomination for Best Revival of a Musical, Drama Desk Nomination for Outstanding Revival of a Musical
- All Shook Up (2005) – musical – produced by Bob Weinstein & Miramax Films
- The Color Purple (2005) – musical
Accolades
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb name|918424}}
{{Navboxes
|title = Awards for Bob Weinstein
|list =
{{BAFTA Los Angeles Britannia Awards}}
{{Producers Guild of America Milestone Award}}
}}
{{Authority control}}
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Category:20th-century American Jews
Category:American film studio executives
Category:American film production company founders
Category:American people of Polish-Jewish descent
Category:American theatre managers and producers
Category:Businesspeople from Connecticut
Category:Businesspeople from Queens, New York
Category:Film producers from New York City
Category:Mass media people from Queens, New York
Category:The Weinstein Company people
Category:Golden Globe Award–winning producers
Category:21st-century American Jews
Category:American Ashkenazi Jews