Miramax Films said Wednesday it has reached a deal with Miramax’s owners, the Walt Disney Co., allowing it to find a new distributor for director Michael Moore’s controversial documentary “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which Disney refused to distribute.
“We are very happy that Disney has agreed to sell ‘Fahrenheit 911’ to Bob and Harvey,” Miramax spokesman Matthew Hiltzik said in a statement, referring to Miramax co-chiefs Harvey and Bob Weinstein.
Under the agreement, the Weinstein brothers would acquire the rights to the film that chronicles America’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks and looks at links between the family of President Bush and prominent Saudis, including the family of Osama bin Laden.
Hiltzik said the Weinsteins are providing a “term sheet” to Disney based on a similar deal for a previous, controversial Miramax film “Dogma,” and that the brothers “look forward to promptly completing this transaction.”
The Weinsteins would then be free to find a new distributor to release the documentary into theaters, possibly as soon as July.
Disney, Miramax’s corporate parent, had previously refused to distribute the movie that Miramax had funded.
Disney’s decision, which it said it had made as long as one year ago, spurred headlines last week when Moore, the filmmaker behind 2002’s Oscar-winning “Bowling for Columbine,” went public with it.