Daniel Battsek

Once in a blue moon, browsing my daily paper, the Financial Times, I find a mention of my hometown, Montclair, New Jersey. This week-end issue picked current resident Daniel Battsek for its Expat Lives column. I guess by Yen for a decent banger (free registration required to read) Gordon Miller who wrote the Expat piece meant 'Yearn for...' It seems that the 2 things Daniel Battsek misses most about the UK are Bangers (the British sausages) and being able to attend Chelsea Football Club...Read Full Story

It was built on sex, lies and videotape. Also “Sex, Lies and Videotape.” And “Pulp Fiction,” “Shakespeare in Love,” “The English Patient” and “The Postman.” Plus Quentin Tarantino, Matt and Ben, Gwyneth and Renee, and a foul-mouthed Jersey clerk named Smith. And yesterday, it finally faded out. Thirty-one years after it started – and 17 years after its founding brothers, Harvey and Bob Weinstein, fatally sold the company to Disney – Miramax has shut down for good. According to its Mouse...Read Full Story

Daniel Battsek, head of Walt Disney Co.’s specialty label Miramax Films, has been forced out after a series of flops failed to turn around the struggling company, whose brighter moments included such prestige movies as “No Country for Old Men,” “The Queen” and “Doubt.” Battsek’s departure comes on the heels of Disney’s move this month to slash 70% of Miramax’s staff, to 20 people, and drastically cut the number of movies it releases to only three annually. Miramax’s marketing and...Read Full Story

NEW YORK, Oct. 31 (UPI) -- Miramax Films President Daniel Battsek is leaving his post as part of the U.S. film studio's decision to move in a new direction, a Disney official said. Variety.com reported Walt Disney Studios Chairman Rich Ross's announcement regarding Battsek's departure from Disney's independent film division comes after the film studio cut its number of movies released annually from as many as eight to three a year. Miramax has also merged its marketing, distribution...Read Full Story

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- Walt Disney Studios has restructured Miramax Films, eliminating 50 jobs and cutting its art house label's annual release slate in half, Variety reported Friday. the entertainment industry trade newspaper quoted Disney Studios President Alan Bergman as saying. As part of the new plan, Miramax's marketing, distribution, operations and administrative support functions reportedly will be absorbed by the parent studio in Burbank, Calif., while Miramax President...Read Full Story