Netflix Signs Movie Deal With Weinstein Subsidiary

23 Aug, 2012 By: Erik Gruenwedel

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Film slate includes ‘Drive’ sequel starring Ryan Gosling

Netflix Aug. 23 said it signed a streaming deal with RADiUS-TWC, a distribution unit of The Weinstein Co. specializing in independent movies featuring A-list stars.

Under terms of the multiyear agreement, Netflix’s 27 million streaming subscribers — beginning in 2013 — will have access to a slate of eclectic titles from The Sundance Film festival and other sources signed by the new multiplatform unit of TWC. The movies shore up Netflix’s TV show-centric portfolio and offer a new source of content should Netflix not renew its movie deal with Epix — the distribution platform co-owned by Lionsgate, Paramount and MGM.

Netflix earlier this year signed a streaming deal with TWC that includes Oscar (Best Picture) winner The Artist and France’s biggest box office hit, The Intouchables.

Among the new movies from RADiUS-TWC are Leslye Hedland’s comedy Bachelorette, about three best girlfriends (Kirsten Dunst, Isla Fisher and Lizzy Caplan) whose night of prenuptial debauchery threatens to ruin the wedding; Only God Forgives, Nicolas Winding Refn’s follow-up to Drive, starring Ryan Gosling and Kristen Scott Thomas; and the Toronto and Telluride festival hit Butter with Jennifer Garner, Ty Burrell, Olivia Wilde, Rob Corddry, Ashley Greene, Alicia Silverstone and Hugh Jackman.

Also coming to Netflix are The Details, starring Tobey Maguire, Elizabeth Banks, Dennis Haysbert, Kerry Washington, Ray Liotta and Laura Linney, which also premiered at Sundance, and Lay the Favorite, another Sundance hit directed by Academy Award nominee Stephen Frears (The Queen), starring Bruce Willis, Rebecca Hall, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Vince Vaughn.

“As an independent studio, we embrace all of the new avenues people are choosing to use when seeing their favorite movies,” said TWC co-chairman Harvey Weinstein. “The RADiUS-Netflix partnership is a natural and exciting next step for us, and one that gives us the power to reach a broader audience than ever before.”

Upcoming RADiUS titles include Pusher with Richard Coyle and Bronson Webb, The Expatriate with Aaron Eckhart and Olga Kurylenko, and Solomon Kane with James Purefoy and Max von Sydow.

“We are delighted to be extending our relationship again with TWC, incorporating the cutting edge and crowd-pleasing movies distributed by RADiUS,” Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos said in a statement.

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