The Weinstein Company (TWC) is an American film studio founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstein in 2005 after the brothers left the then-Disney-owned Miramax Films, which they had co-founded in 1979. They retained ownership of the Dimension Films label of Miramax.

History[link]

Their first releases in 2005 included the dramatic thriller Derailed (starring Jennifer Aniston and Clive Owen), the offbeat comedy-drama Transamerica (starring Felicity Huffman) the computer-animated family film Hoodwinked, the World War II-era comedy-drama Mrs. Henderson Presents (starring Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins) and the caper comedy The Matador (starring Pierce Brosnan and Greg Kinnear).

In February 2006, TWC announced a distribution pact with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.^[2] MGM distributed the product domestically in theatres, while TWC will retain long-term ownership of their product.

In July 2006, the Weinsteins and Robert L. Johnson announced the creation of a joint venture studio titled Our Stories Films, which will distribute African-American-oriented films.^[3] In late August 2006, it was announced that TWC and co-investors Hubbard Media Group purchased Ovation TV, an arts-focused cable channel.^[4]

In November 2006, TWC announced a three-year deal with Blockbuster Video to give the video renting company exclusive rights for rentals starting on 1 January 2007.^[5] However, under the First Sale Doctrine of United States copyright law, other rental companies are able to rent copies of the company's movies purchased at retail.^{[citation needed]}

The company is the co-producer, along with Miramax, of the Lifetime reality series Project Runway, which for its first five seasons aired on Bravo.^{[citation needed]}

On May 24, 2007, the Weinstein Company announced the launch of three new direct-to-video labels: The Miriam Collection, Kaleidoscope TWC, and Dimension Extreme.^[6]

On September 25, 2008, TWC ended its three-year distribution pact with MGM three months before the December 31 end date. This happened in part because TWC had struck a television output deal with Showtime, though not through MGM's output deal with them. During the span of their pact, TWC paid for marketing and prints, while MGM received a distribution fee for booking theatres.^[7]

In 2009, TWC might have lost the rights to the movie Sin City 2. The first film cost only 40 million dollars to make and brought in almost 159 million in box office alone.^[8] Weinstein Company lawyer Bert Fields quickly denied this report saying "TWC's rights to produce sequels to Sin City remain intact as they always have been. Any suggestion to the contrary is complete hogwash."^[9][10]

In June 2009, the Weinstein Company announced the hiring of a financial adviser to restructure the finances of the company.^[11] Since July, 2009, many layoffs occurred at TWC, and the release dates of some films were pushed back.^[12][13]

On September 14, 2009, TWC terminated its stake in Genius Products, which served as TWC's home video distributor from 2006 to 2009. Genius however, had announced to exit the home video distribution business and the DVD rights that were distributed by Genius were sold to Vivendi Entertainment. TWC also struck a deal with Vivendi.^[14]

In January 2010, TWC announced more layoffs at the company after the box office failure of Nine.^[15] On February 21, 2010, The Weinstein Company made a deal with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment releasing the DVDs through Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group.^[16]

TWC's library, consisting of 200 titles, will be sold off to Goldman Sachs and Assured Guaranty. The deal, if successful, will free the Weinsteins from debt.^[17]

Bob and Harvey Weinstein attempted to buy back Miramax from Disney in 2010, but the attempt was unsuccessful.^[18]

A new joint venture between Miramax and TWC has been set up, to develop sequels of films from the former studio. Sequels to Rounders, Bad Santa, and Shakespeare in Love are among the films being developed under this new deal, while sequels to Bridget Jones’s Diary, Cop Land, From Dusk till Dawn, Swingers, Clerks, Shall We Dance?, and The Amityville Horror are being billed as "potential" projects.^[19]

On January 4, 2011, the Weinstein Company has agreed to acquire a 25% stake in Starz Media. Because of this, Starz Media subsidiary Anchor Bay Entertainment became the home video distributor for all TWC films. ^[20]

On February 3, 2011, the Weinsteins extracted a $75 million consolation prize from their former parent company, Disney, thus improving their filmmaking career. As a result, Disney handed over its 50% stake in Project Runaway, and reduced its share in four jointly owned films, including Scary Movie and Spy Kids, from 50% to 5%.^[21]

On February 27, 2011, TWC's distributed film The King's Speech brought to the company their first Academy Award for Best Picture at the 83rd Annual Academy Awards, after their last Best Picture Oscar winner Chicago won in 2002 when Bob and Harvey Weinstein were at Miramax, controlled by then corporate owner Disney, and their previous Best Picture nominees for TWC were 2008's The Reader and 2009's Inglourious Basterds, the latter film a co-production with Universal Pictures and A Band Apart.^[22]

In March 2011, the company formed a video game division named TWC Games.^[23] TWC Games formed a strategic consultancy with Beefy Media, a video game production company, to foster relationships with publishers and create high-quality games.^[23]

On February 26, 2012 after TWC's purchase of the rights to release Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist in the United States, which won the prestigious Cannes Film Festival award for Best Actor Jean Dujardin, "The Artist" won 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture. This is the second consecutive Oscar for Best Picture awarded to the Weinstein Company. The last independent mini-major to win back-to-back Oscars for Best Picture was Orion Pictures' for their films Dances with Wolves in 1990 and The Silence of the Lambs in 1991.

Film distributor history[link]

Weinstein films[link]

Other films[link]

• Freddie as F.R.O.7 (1992) (DVD, TBA) (theatrically released by Miramax Family Films)
• The Thief and the Cobbler (1995/2010) (DVD) (theatrically released by Miramax Family Films)
• The Promise: acquired North American distribution rights, then sold them to Warner Independent Pictures
• Lovewrecked: acquired the North American rights from Media 8 Entertainment and then sold them to the ABC Family Network.
• Nomad: acquired North American distribution rights.
• All the Boys Love Mandy Lane: acquired North American rights but shortly thereafter sold them to Senator Film.
• The Forbidden Kingdom (2008) (with Lionsgate and Relativity Media)
• Igor (2008) (developed by and originally intended for release by TWC, but sold their rights to co-distributor MGM)
• All Good Things (2010): acquired North American and International distribution rights. The North American rights were eventually purchased back by the film's director. However, the company will still release the film internationally.

Upcoming films[link]

2012[link]

2013[link]

• Scary Movie 5 (Distributed by Dimension Films) - 1/11
• Escape from Planet Earth - 2/14 (USA distribution only)
• Leo the Lion - 8/30^[27]
• The Trick or Treaters - 10/25^[27]
• Santapprentice - 12/6^[27]
• While We're Young (co-production with Universal Pictures, Scott Rudin Productions and Davis Films)
• Inside Llewyn Davis (co-production with Paramount Pictures, Mike Zoss Productions and Scott Rudin Productions)

TBD[link]

• Shelter (2011)
• Opus: The Last Christmas
• Sin City 2
• Neveracker
• Rob Zombie's Tyrannosaurus Rex
• Sci Fi Movie
• How to Defeat Your Own Clone
• Livid (film)
• Bad Santa 2
• Untouchable (film) English remake
• Short Circuit (film) remake
• August: Osage County
• Scream 5

International distributors[link]

Australia[link]

• Roadshow Entertainment
• Sony Pictures Entertainment

UK[link]

• Momentum Pictures
• Entertainment Film Distributors
• Pathé

France[link]

• SND^{[disambiguation needed ]}

Weinstein books[link]

Upon leaving Disney, the Weinsteins reached an agreement to bring over Rob Weisbach, the CEO of their publishing imprint, Miramax Books, to the Weinstein Company. Weisbach would continue to manage all of Miramax Books' existing titles until they were published but would acquire all new titles for Weinstein, while Disney would acquire new titles under their Hyperion imprint.^[28] Judy Hottensen is currently acting president of Weinstein Books.^[29]

Weinstein Books published its first book, Bloodletting and Miraculous Cures, on September 4, 2007.^[30]

On October 19, 2009, TWC announced a joint venture with Perseus Book Group, whereby Perseus would be responsible for marketing, editing, publishing and distribution of Weinstein Books releases.^[31]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• The Weinstein Company at the Internet Movie Database

Jamie Foxx
Foxx promoting Stealth in July 2005
Birth name	Eric Marlon Bishop
Born	(1967-12-13) December 13, 1967 (age 44) Terrell, Texas, United States
Medium	Stand up, Film, Television, Radio, Music
Nationality	American
Years active	1989–present
Genres	Musical comedy, Political satire, Observational comedy, Character comedy, Black comedy (as actor) R&B, hip hop, soul, pop(as singer and rapper)
Subject(s)	Race relations, Racism, African-American culture, Celebrities, Human sexuality, American politics, Current events, Self-deprecation
Influences	Redd Foxx[1]
Notable works and roles	Law Abiding Citizen Jamie King on The Jamie Foxx Show Ray Charles in Ray Nico in Rio
Website	Official site

Eric Marlon Bishop (born December 13, 1967), professionally known as Jamie Foxx, is an American actor, singer-songwriter, rapper, stand-up comedian, and talk radio host who began playing the piano when he was five years old. As an actor, his work in the film Ray earned him the Academy Award and BAFTA Award for Best Actor as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a musical/comedy. He is also a Grammy Award winning musician, producing three albums which have charted highly on the Billboard 200: Unpredictable, which topped the chart, Best Night of My Life and Intuition.

Born in Terrell, Texas, Foxx was raised by his mother's adoptive parents. He performed in high school and was awarded with a scholarship to United States International University. In his twenties, Foxx began performing stand-up at comedy clubs, and eventually joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991; this exposure helped him land film roles and star in his own sitcom, The Jamie Foxx Show. He released his debut album, Peep This, in 1994, but he did not gain significant musical success until 2004 when he was featured in Twista's song "Slow Jamz". Also in 2004, Foxx played critically acclaimed roles in the films Collateral and Ray. He released his second album, Unpredictable, in 2005, which was helped by his collaboration on Kanye West's number-one single "Gold Digger". His third album Intuition was released in 2008 and was anchored by the single "Blame It". Foxx released his fourth studio album, Best Night of My Life, in 2010.

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Foxx was born as Eric Marlon Bishop on December 13, 1967, in Terrell, Texas.^[2] He is the son of Louise Annette Talley Dixon and Shaheed Abdulah. Foxx was abandoned seven months after birth, and was subsequently adopted and raised in Terrell by his mother's adoptive parents. Terrell was a racially segregated community at the time.^[3] Foxx had a strict Baptist upbringing^[4][5] and began piano lessons at the age of five by his grandmother's orders. As a teenager, he was a part-time pianist and choir leader in Terrell's New Hope Baptist Church.^[3]

Foxx attended Terrell High School, where he received top grades, played basketball and football as quarterback, and had an ambition to play for the Dallas Cowboys. He was the first player in the school's history to pass for more than 1,000 yards.^[3][6] He also sang in a band called Leather and Lace.^[3] After completing high school, Foxx received a scholarship to United States International University, where he studied classical music and composition.^[3][7] He has often acknowledged his grandmother's influence in his life as one of the greatest reasons for his success.^[4][8]

[edit] 1989-94: Stand-up career, acting debut, Peep This and legal issue

After accepting a girlfriend's dare, Foxx told jokes and at a comedy club's open mic night in 1989. When he found that comediennes were often called first to perform, he changed his name to Jamie Foxx, feeling that it was an ambiguous enough name to disallow any biases.^[1][3] He chose his surname as a tribute to comedian Redd Foxx.^[1] In addition his recurrent In Living Color character LaWanda shared names with Redd's friend and co-worker, LaWanda Page.

Foxx joined the cast of In Living Color in 1991 and subsequently played a recurring role in the comedy-drama sitcom Roc.^[9] From 1996 to 2001, Foxx starred in his own sitcom The Jamie Foxx Show, and made his film debut in the 1992 comedy Toys. His first dramatic role came in Oliver Stone's 1999 film Any Given Sunday, where he portrayed a hard-partying American football player.^[4] He was cast in the role in part because of his background as a football player.^[4] Following Any Given Sunday, Foxx was featured as taxi driver Max Durocher in the film Collateral alongside Tom Cruise, for which he received outstanding reviews and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.^[4] In 1994, Foxx released an album (on the Fox record label) entitled Peep This.

In April 2003, Foxx was involved in an incident with two police officers who were attempting to escort him and his sister out of Harrah's casino in New Orleans. Employees claimed they had failed to show identification upon entry. Originally charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace, battery on police officers and resisting arrest, Foxx pleaded no contest to disturbing the peace in exchange for the other charges being dropped, and was sentenced to a six month suspended jail term with two years probation and a $1,500 fine.^[10][11]

In 2003, Foxx made a cameo in Benzino's music video for "Would You", which features LisaRaye McCoy and Mario Winans.

[edit] 2004-06: Ray, Collateral, and Unpredictable

Foxx and Kanye West performing "Gold Digger"

His music career shifted into a higher gear when, in 2004, he was featured on rapper Twista's song, "Slow Jamz", which also featured Kanye West. The song reached #1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, as well as #3 on the UK Singles chart. Foxx's second collaboration with Kanye West, "Gold Digger," in which he sang the "I Got a Woman" Ray Charles-influenced hook, went straight to #1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and remained there for 10 weeks. In 2005, Foxx was featured on the single "Georgia" by Atlanta rappers Ludacris and Field Mob. The song sampled Ray Charles' hit "Georgia on My Mind." He also had a beginning verse on Kanye's "Gold Digger."

His standout performance, however, was his portrayal of Ray Charles in the biopic Ray (2004), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor^[4] and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Foxx is the second male in history to receive two acting Oscar nominations in the same year for two different movies, Collateral and Ray. The only other male actor to achieve this was Al Pacino. In 2005, Foxx was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.^[12]

Foxx released his second studio album, Unpredictable, in December 2005. It debuted at #2, selling 598,000 copies in its first week.^[13] The following week, the album rose to #1, selling an additional 200,000 copies.^[14] To date, the album has sold 1.98 million copies in the United States, and was certified double Platinum by the RIAA.^[15][16] The album also charted on the UK Albums Chart, where it peaked at #9.^[17] Foxx became the fourth artist to have won an Academy Award^® for an acting role and to have achieved a #1 album in the U.S. (The other three to accomplish this feat were Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, and Barbra Streisand.) Foxx's first single from the album, the title track "Unpredictable" (featuring Ludacris), samples "Wildflower" by New Birth. The song peaked in the Billboard Hot 100 Top 10 singles and also made the UK Top 20 singles chart. The second U.S. single from the album was "DJ Play a Love Song," which reunited Foxx with Twista. In the UK, however, the second single was "Extravaganza," which saw Foxx once again collaborate with Kanye West. He was not, however, featured in the song's music video.

At the 2006 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards, Foxx won Best Duet/Collaboration with Kanye West for "Gold Digger" and tied with Mary J. Blige's "Be Without You" for Video of the Year. On December 8, 2006, Foxx received four Grammy Award^® nominations, which included Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals for Love Changes featuring Mary J. Blige, Best R&B Album for Unpredictable, Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for Georgia by Ludacris & Field Mob featuring Jamie Foxx, and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for Unpredictable featuring Ludacris.

[edit] 2006-2009: Dreamgirls, The Soloist, Intuition and Miley Cyrus incident

Foxx's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Following these successes, Foxx appeared in Jarhead, Miami Vice, and Dreamgirls, which were box-office hits, and lifted his profile even higher as a bankable star in Hollywood. 2007 brought him the lead role in the film The Kingdom opposite Chris Cooper, Jason Bateman, Jennifer Garner and Ashraf Barhom. In September 2007, Foxx was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He said, upon receiving the honor, "[it was] one of the most amazing days of my life."^[18]

On January 22, 2007, Foxx was on Sirius Satellite Radio, announcing his new channel The Foxxhole. The channel features talk-radio programs, stand-up comedy albums, and music primarily by African-American performers, and features much of Foxx's own material as well. The Jamie Foxx Show, Foxx's own talk-radio variety program, airs Friday evenings on The Foxxhole, and features Johnny Mack, Speedy, The Poetess, Lewis Dix, and T.D.P., as his co-hosts. Guests include popular musicians, actors, and fellow comedians. He recorded a song with country superstars Rascal Flatts entitled "She Goes All the Way" for their album, Still Feels Good. Foxx also performed background vocals for artist/songwriter Tank. He and The-Dream are featured on Plies' "Please Excuse My Hands." He also appeared on the remix of Ne-Yo's "Miss Independent" entitled "She Got Her Own." The track also features Fabolous. Foxx then collaborated with rapper The Game on the track "Around The World." In April 2009, Foxx played the lead role in the dramatic film The Soloist. A few months later in October 2009, He played a starring role along side Gerard Butler in the thriller Law Abiding Citizen. In April 2011, Foxx voiced Nico, a canary in the movie Rio.

Foxx released his third album titled Intuition in 2008, featuring such artists as Kanye West, T.I., Ne-Yo, and T-Pain. The album's first single, "Just Like Me" featuring T.I., was promoted by a video directed by Brett Ratner and featuring an appearance by Taraji P. Henson. The second single "Blame It" featured T-Pain and became a top 5 single on the Billboard Hot 100 and a number-one single on the Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The "Blame It" music video, directed by Hype Williams, features cameo appearances by Forest Whitaker, Samuel L. Jackson, Ron Howard, Quincy Jones, and Jake Gyllenhaal, among others. Foxx was also featured on T.I.'s single "Live in the Sky" from the album King. On April 6, 2009 Foxx performed the George Strait song "You Look So Good in Love" at the George Strait Artist of the Decade All-Star Concert. Foxx has been a fan of country music for many years. Jamie Foxx hosted the 2009 BET Awards ceremony on June 28, 2009, which featured several tributes to pop star Michael Jackson, who had died three days prior to the show. Aside from performing "Blame It" with T-Pain and "She Got Her Own" with Ne-Yo and Fabolous, Foxx opened the show with a rendition of Jackson's "Beat It" dance routine and closed the show with a cover of The Jackson 5's "I'll Be There" with Ne-Yo. Foxx stated during the ceremony, "We want to celebrate this black man. He belongs to us and we shared him with everybody else."

On the April 17, 2009 episode of The Jamie Foxx Show on Foxxhole Radio, Foxx and his co-hosts made several sexually suggestive and disparaging jokes regarding teenaged singer Miley Cyrus, in response to a caller's comment on a recent altercation between Cyrus and rock band Radiohead.^[19] Foxx issued a public apology on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno several days later in response to growing public outcry as well as televised criticism by Cyrus's father, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus.^[20]

[edit] 2010-present: Django Unchained and Best Night of My Life

In 2011, Foxx was officially cast in the title role of, Django Unchained. It will be written and directed by Quentin Tarantino, and he will star alongside his Ray co-star Kerry Washington, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Samuel L. Jackson. As a producer, Foxx played a role in In the Flow with Affion Crockett on Fox in summer 2011.^[21]

Foxx released his fourth album, Best Night of My Life, on December 21, 2010.^[22] The first single is "Winner", featuring Justin Timberlake and T.I..^[23] The second single is "Living Better Now" featuring rapper Rick Ross and the third single is "Fall For Your Type" featuring rapper Drake.^[22] On October 7, RCA Music Group announced it was disbanding J Records along with Arista Records and Jive Records. With the shutdown, Foxx (and all other artists previously signed to these three labels) will release his future material on the RCA Records brand.^[24][25] In 2011, Jamie Foxx was featured in the rapper Pitbull's album 'Planet Pitt' in the song "Where Do We go".

Personal life[link]

This section requires expansion.

Foxx has a daughter, Corinne Bishop, who was born in 1994.^[3] Former Jamie Foxx Show co-star Garcelle Beauvais made a public announcement stating that Foxx has a second child.^[26] Foxx was spotted with the baby in Miami for New Year's Eve 2010, and it was revealed to be a girl.^[27]

Foxx performed a public service announcement for Do Something to promote food drives in local communities.^[28]

Jamie Foxx began playing the piano when he was five years old.

Discography[link]

• Peep This (1994)
• Unpredictable (2005)
• Intuition (2008)
• Best Night of My Life (2010)

Hosted Mixtapes

• Young Buck - Chronic 2006

Tours[link]

• The Unpredictable Tour (2006)
• The Blame It Tour (2009)

Filmography[link]