This is purely speculation on my part, but from an outsider's perspective it certainly appears that Harvey Weinstein is having his ass handed to him on a plate by Michael Eisner and Disney in his ongoing struggle with Miramax's corporate overlords.

First came word of budget roll backs, a stalled production slate, Disney putting the kibosh on Fahrenheit 9/11, and then a round of layoffs. About halfway through this year's Toronto Film Festival I realized that, in marked contrast to last year's fest where Miramax was ubiquitous, I had not seen a single Miramax related film nor had I heard of them picking up rights to a single buzz film, and that was a trend that continued through to the very end of the Festival. And not only did I not see a single Miramax related title but I'm pretty sure that NOBODY from Twitch saw anything that Miramax had rights to, unless they've got their hooks in Millions. A major film festival that Miramax wasn't cherry picking the best properties from? Unthinkable even a year ago. And now this. Another fifty five Miramax employees - thirteen percent of their current work force - have been handed their pink slips. This follows a previous layoff of what was a similar percentage of staff a couple months back.

For the better part of the past decade Miramax has been the undisputed lord and master of the art house in North America, holding rights to virtually everything and propelling a stack of now hugely influential directors into the limelight. Nobody worked the Oscar vote better than Weinstein and co. but it appears that their reign is coming to a rapid, whimpering close. Between Disney evidently looking to make an example of Weinstein with slashed budgets forcing stalled production and the firing of over a quarter of their staff and the rise of companies like Newmarket and Focus it looks as though, barring a sudden and dramatic turnaround, Miramax is done as a major tastemaker in the film world.