'Rounders' And 'Shakespeare In Love' Sequels Developing As Weinsteins Regain Control Of Miramax Library

The once-independent Miramax catalog is getting a new school Hollywood makeover. Founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein, who left the company in 2005 and formed The Weinstein Company, just signed a deal to regain creative control over the Miramax library. Colony Capital purchased it from Disney in 2010, for $660 million. Their first two orders of business will be sequels to Best Picture winner Shakespeare in Love and cult poker film Rounders. They'll also develop TV series based on Good Will Hunting, Swingers and Flirting with Disaster, and jumpstart development on scripts by Stephen Colbert, Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack. Read much more below.

Deadline broke the news of this major deal. It's a twenty year deal that spans TV, films and stage productions. Quatar Holdings does the financing, the Weinstein Company handles development and Miramax distributes international distribution.

Here's Harvey Weinstein on the Shakespeare In Love sequel:

I personally have never made a sequel, but I will make Shakespeare In Love as one. I've always wanted to do that and now we have the impetus to.

And on the Rounders sequel:

I've discussed making Rounders 2 with Matt Damon and I would say that's going to be instantaneous. The guys [writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman] have a great idea, a way to make it more international where you start the card game in Paris, that's all I want to say. There might be a certain beautiful Parisian actress involved in it, and then we're off to the racetrack and Vegas with Matty and Edward Norton, and a new supervillain to replace John Malkovich.

Deadline reports they're eyeing Robert De Niro for that new villain role.

As for those other scripts, the Colbert one is called The Alibi about a group that helps cheating spouses and The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax, which Minghella and Pollack were developing before their passing.

This is certainly a fluid story with more information sure to break in the coming days, weeks and months but the main take away is the Weinsteins now once again have creative control over the Miramax films they lost when they left the company. The sky is the limit, and since we know they've been looking to expand into television with original scripts and series based on other film properties, expect to see more development.

Additional source: The Hollywood Reporter