Harvey Weinstein To Be Taken Off TWC TV & Movie Credits As Company Explores Overall Name Change
EXCLUSIVE: On the heels of Harvey Weinstein’s ouster from The Weinstein Company, his name is being removed from all of the company’s TV series, on which he had served as an executive producer, sources told Deadline. The same step is expected to be taken on movie releases. Additionally, we hear TWC brass are auditioning ad agencies today that will be tasked with finding a new name for the overall production and distribution company.
We hear TWC has been making calls to TV networks and producers informing them that Harvey Weinstein’s name will be scrubbed from credits going forward. They were prompted by strong reaction from TV executives and creative auspices involved in TWC series who practically demanded the name removal as they wanted to distance their projects from Weinstein following the New York Times‘ devastating Thursday expose detailing decades of sexual harassment behavior. That report has been exacerbated by numerous subsequent accounts by women who have come out in the past couple of days.
We hear the removal of Weinstein’s name could kick off with the first TWC series to air following the scandal, the upcoming episode of female-themed Project Runway on the female-centric Lifetime this Wednesday.
It will be followed by the new seasons of dramas Six on History and Scream on MTV as well as the upcoming Waco with Taylor Kitsch, and Yellowstone with Kevin Costner for Paramount TV; a new series from David O. Russell, starring Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore for Amazon; and Matthew Weiner’s The Romanoffs, also for Amazon. On those two Amazon series, on which TWC had signed on as co-financier, we hear the company has not come through with any financing as of yet, even with one of the shows, The Romanoffs, already in production.
Aside from removing Weinstein’s name, we hear all of TWC’s series will be going forward as planned. It is understood that Weinstein’s personal involvement in most if not all of them has been passive to peripheral, and a decision to hastily cancel the series would mean putting hundreds of people on each show out of work.
Paramount Network is heavily relying on TWC for its rebrand launch, which is built around the company’s Waco, Yellowstone, and six-part documentary series Rest In Power: The Trayvon Martin Story with Jay-Z, based in part on a book by former Harvey Weinstein legal advisor Lisa Bloom. All are moving forward, at least for now.
Taking Weinstein’s name off TWC features would likely be a more complex process as he had been far more involved in those projects. His dismissal from film and TV credits may lead to a collision with the Oscar powerhouse producer, but it has become priority for TWC’s survival to distance itself from a man whose name is as close to a brand as any producer/studio chief. That brand is now toxic.
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