The wacky Miramax deal

Who knew that Disney's decision to unload the movie production company would turn out to be such a circus? Perhaps it says something about the people interested in doing deals these days. In case you haven't kept up, the Mouse House seemed ready to sell Miramax to an unlikely group led by construction magnate Ron Tutor and producer David Bergstein. This was considered a weird pairing - Tutor has no background in running a movie production company and Bergstein is currently being chased by creditors who claim they have been chiseled out of millions. But the investment firm Colony Capital got into the buying group - in particular, the head of the entertainment division, Richard Nanula, who happens to be a former CFO at Disney.

So everything appeared to be moving along when out of the blue, the normally press-shy Tutor was interviewed by the Hollywood Reporter and he dissed Bergstein, telling Alex Ben Block that the producer will not be involved in running Miramax. From the interview:

There will be no role in the new theatrical distribution company for the controversial David Bergstein, with whom Tutor has been investing in movies and movie companies for the past seven years. In a rare, wide-ranging discussion (excluding Miramax deal details that fall under a nondisclosure agreement), Tutor, 69, did not mince words about his former partner, making clear that the relationship with Bergstein is "strained" while expressing pity for his former friend and his failings.

"There's something very nice about (Bergstein) when you meet him, he's very charming," Tutor said. "But as I've told him a number of times, he needs to look inward. All the sick things he did, gambling money he didn't have, trying to grow a business he didn't know and borrowing the way he did, and the madness, to sum it up, of what took place, he's got to learn from it because it virtually destroyed him. If you don't learn from your mistakes, you just continue to make them."

The interview was more than a little strange, considering that the deal with Disney had not been completed and the two sides were under a tight confidentiality agreement. Now, Sharon Waxman at The Wrap is reporting that Tutor is threatening to sue the Reporter, claiming he was misquoted.

WaxWord also obtained a letter Tutor wrote to Bergstein, in which he confirmed that the financier does indeed remain a close consultant on the Miramax deal, and regretting having given the interview. "I never used the word 'sick' or 'madness,'" he wrote to Bergstein today. "We were obviously still doing business with your significant consulting role in the Disney Miramax transaction." "Significant role?" What happened to throwing Bergstein under the bus? It gets better. "You know your role in this transaction," he writes further, "and so do the partners, and it has been invaluable. And believe it or not, I still trust you.".

Apparently, Bergstein went after Ben Block earlier this year in another story (the Reporter stands by Ben Block's interview). There's no telling whether any of this will hamper getting the deal done, but obviously it complicates an already complicated sale.