AP sources: Discussions for Burkle to buy Miramax from Disney hit bump due to Weinstein Co.

AP sources: Talks to buy Disney’s Miramax slowed

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle’s talks to buy The Walt Disney Co.’s Miramax Films division are at an impasse, mainly because of problems securing the Weinstein brothers as the company’s managers, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.

Disney had been negotiating exclusively with the 57-year-old supermarket king to sell him the niche movie label for about $625 million since mid-April, and hopes were high that a deal could be announced during the Cannes Film Festival in the south of France.

With the closing ceremony at Cannes just two days away, it looks increasingly likely that Harvey and Bob Weinstein will be left without a splashy announcement to make on the red carpet where they have garnered so much critical acclaim.

Sticky relations between the Weinsteins and the movie studio they founded in 2005, The Weinstein Co., are holding up a deal, the people said. Unresolved issues include how much time the Weinsteins will devote to Miramax, which they founded and then sold to Disney for $80 million in 1993, and how The Weinstein Co. will benefit from the arrangement.

The people were not authorized to speak about the matter publicly and requested anonymity.

News of the talks breaking down was reported earlier in the Los Angeles Times.

Cracks in the relationship appeared last month, when Mark Cuban, the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and a Weinstein Co. investor, told Bloomberg News he had “an issue” with the studio amid widely reported talks of the Weinsteins’ involvement in a Miramax deal.

The Weinstein Co. board member Richard Koenigsberg quickly released a statement saying Cuban’s concerns had to do with the failure of “The Road” and its limited distribution in theaters. Koenigsberg offered the board’s “full support” to the brothers’ involvement in the deal to buy Miramax.

Other investors in The Weinstein Co., such as Goldman Sachs, may share similar concerns about their principals focusing their attention elsewhere.

Spokespeople for Burkle and Disney declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the Weinsteins did not return a message seeking comment.

The Weinsteins founded Miramax, naming it after their parents, Miriam and Max, in 1979. They managed it under Disney ownership following its sale in 1993, but left in acrimony following a public spat over Michael Moore’s 2004 documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which Disney refused to distribute.

Miramax’s Oscar-laden film library is full of prestigious films such as “My Left Foot” (1989), “Pulp Fiction” (1994) and “Good Will Hunting” (1997), and still makes money on home video and pay TV. Included in the deal for Miramax are potentially five movies that are finished but haven’t been released, including “The Switch,” a comedy starring Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman.

Disney has been looking to sell the label because it no longer resonated with its other family-centric studio units such as Pixar and Marvel amid a studio overhaul.