Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, George Clooney and Bill Murray are among a host of stars objecting to the sale of the Weinstein Company.
The firm is currently awaiting court approval on a deal that would sell their assets to Lantern Capital on July 11 – two days before their bankruptcy filing expires – but a host of famous faces, including Quentin Tarantino, Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio and Rachel McAdams, have filed objections to the sale as they are concerned they will miss out on agreed shares of back-end profit payments.
According to Variety, the stars claim they are still owed profit participation payments from Weinstein Company movies they were involved in, citing a clause in the deal that gives Lantern four months after closing the deal to determine which of the firm’s contracts they’ll assume.
The contracts that aren’t taken by Lantern will remain with the Weinstein Company estate, and will be treated as unsecured liabilities in the bankruptcy filing, meaning the actors and directors could receive little, if not any, of the money they are owed.
And attorney Christopher Simon – who is representing a number of the objectors, including Brad, Meryl and George – argued the four-month period allows Lantern the opportunity to renege on making those profit participation payments.
He said in court documents: "Lantern has not shown any willingness to pay, or even negotiate the claims of Counterparties, and instead appears to favour continuing litigation by the Debtors against the Counterparties at a substantial cost to the estates."
He also argued Lantern being given "carte blanche" violates bankruptcy law and "could result in the imposition of millions of dollars in administrative and unsecured liabilities to the Debtors’ estates".
The Weinstein Company and Lantern Capital spent a month disputing who was responsible for such payments, and in the agreement, Lantern have agreed to assume some of the payments for contracts that remain to be settled, and will pay at least $8.75 million, though they haven’t yet determined which contracts they will take.
In return, the sale price was slashed from $310 million to $289 million.
Stars object to Weinstein Company sale
