Although it’s been two years since The Weinstein Co. picked up the Swedish thriller, Snabba Cash, the movie finally has a release date of July 27^th. Directed by Daniel Espinosa (Safe House), the film (being released as Easy Money) is based on a novel by Swedish author Jens Lapidus and follows a taxi driver (Joel Kinnaman) in Stockholm who gets caught up in a drug-running operation. The novel itself was at the heart of the film’s release delay because the English translation is only just arriving on American shores this April. Pointing to the success of the Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) books and banking on the box-office magic of Espinosa’s Safe House, Harvey Weinstein hopes the wait will be worth it. Hit the jump to see what he had to say.

Starz has journeyed back to Rome and Camelot with a couple of their original series, and now the cable network is heading into the past again for Marco Polo, a new epic series about the legendary 13th century explorer from Hidalgo writer John Fusco and executive producers Harvey and Bob Weinstein and Ben Silverman. Described as a martial arts epic, the series will follow Polo’s adventures throughout his early years in the court of Kublai Khan, the ruler of the Mongol Empire. Acting as the ruler’s spy, ambassador and explorer, Marco treks across the Far East and returns with tales of his journeys.  In a court filled with political betrayal and forbidden relationships, Marco must use his martial arts training to survive, but it is his ability to enchant Khan with imaginative tales of his kingdom that is often his best tool to stay alive.

It definitely sounds like a side of Marco Polo that hasn’t been explored on the big or small screen, but it seems strange to think of Polo as a martial arts expert. Sounds a little bit like 13th century Jason Bourne without the identity crisis. Starz has had great success with Spartacus, but I haven’t found myself being drawn to their original content as much as networks like HBO or Showtime. However, they show no signs of slowing down in their efforts to complete with the Emmy nominated giants. Hit the jump for the full press release.

The Weinstein Company picked up My Idiot Brother at this year’s Sundance Film Festival and changed the title to Our Idiot Brother.  But star Paul Rudd believes the studio can do so much more.  In a new Funny or Die video, Rudd comes into Harvey Weinstein’s office and starts pitching marketing ideas.  You’ll laugh at these ideas now but I’m sure we’ll be seeing all of them being used in less than ten years now.  Paul Rudd will jump out of the back of your taxi and Morgan Freeman will be your driver.  The future is strange and wondrous.

Hit the jump to check out the video.  Our Idiot Brother opens August 26th.

Fahrenheit 9/11 remains the only documentary to break $100 million at the domestic box office, and stands at the top of the format with $222 million worldwide.  Surely there was a lot of money to be made from that venture, and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore claims he still hasn’t received his due.  Moore filed a lawsuit in the Los Angeles Superior Court earlier today that accuses producerial brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein of “Hollywood accounting tricks” and “financial deception” that cheated the director out of at least $2.7 million.

The suit cites a 2008 audit that discovered gross irregularities in the accounting at the expense of Mr. Moore, and further claims the alleged damages could be even higher than $2.7 million if a more thorough audit were possible.  After the jump, read statements from both sides.

Producer Harvey Weinstein lost his battle with the MPAA to get The King’s Speech‘s rating lowered from an “R” to a “PG-13″.  The film received an “R” rating because of one scene where Edward VI (Colin Firth) says “Fuck” a lot and as we all know, if anyone under the age of 17 hears the word “fuck” more than once in a movie, they will turn to a life of prostitution.  Last week, we reported that Weinstein was going to respond to the MPAA’s stupid decision in kind by re-cutting the movie.  Now it looks like he’s might be planning to out-moron the MPAA by “bleeping” the film.  Director Tom Hooper tells EW, “I wouldn’t support cutting the film in any way. I think we looked at whether it’s possible to bleep out the f—s and stuff, but I’m not going to actually cut that part.” And star Helena Bonham Carter says, “I think they said they were going to put the bleeps.”

Hit the jump for why I think this may be one of Weinstein’s clever marketing ploys.

Say what you will about producer Harvey Weinstein, but don’t call him complacent.  Less than 48 hours removed from its 12 Oscar nods, The Weinstein Co. is said to be considering recutting The King’s Speech so as to open the film to a “broader audience.”  As it stands, the film has an R rating for language and the proposed re-editing of the film would aim to cut-down on said language to make it eligible for a lower rating.

For more on The King’s Speech new-look marketing strategy, hit the jump.

The Weinstein Company has acquired the domestic distribution rights to Cogan’s Trade for a wide release in early 2012 — a smart move given what we know about the project.  Andrew Dominik (The Assassination of Jesse James) will direct and adapt the sharp George V. Higgins crime novel.  Brad Pitt and Sam Rockwell are confirmed to star, and an earlier report suggested Casey Affleck, Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem, Bill Murray, Mark Ruffalo, and Zoe Saldana could join the ensemble.

The latest update lists Affleck’s involvement in a more official capacity and adds James Gandolfini’s name to the list of possible ensemblers.  More after the break:

When Bob and Harvey Weinstein left Miramax (the company they founded) back in 2003, they lost the sequel rights to the majority of titles that they produced in their prolific 24-year history with the company. Well, today it seems the Weinsteins and Miramax are back together again, sort of. Now that Disney no longer owns Miramax, the Weinsteins’ former company is happy to deal with the brothers who created the studio in the first place. In what way do you ask? Well, to make unnecessary sequels to every successful Miramax film ever made, of course!

Miramax and The Weinstein Company have partnered to “create sequels to some of Miramax’s best-known properties and to partner on potential new television shows and special edition home entertainment properties.” The first films to be produced will be sequels to Bad Santa, Rounders, and Shakespeare in Love. Hit the jump to check out the list of films that the companies are planning sequels for (Swingers! Clerks!), statements from the Weinsteins, and why this may not be all bad news.

Last Week, Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine was hit was an unexpected NC-17 rating for a scene that was emotionally jarring but not graphically offensive.  Since most theaters won’t run NC-17 films, The Weinstein Company was left with the choice to either appeal the rating or have Cianfrance make cuts and re-submit the movie.  The Weinstein Company have now issued a statement saying they will appeal the rating.  Hit the jump to read the official statement from Harvey Weinstein regarding the matter.  Blue Valentine stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams and is set to open on December 31st.

You may believe that, by the time we’re celebrating the career of David Hasselhoff, the celebrity roast is a dying art form.  And you’d be right.  But the Friars Club does its best to maintain the tradition of the gin-soaked roasts of the Dean Martin era.  Case in point: the club has announced a roast centered on Quentin Tarantino, with Samuel L. Jackson serving as “Roastmaster.”  Such former Tarantino collaborators as Uma Thurman, Pam Grier, Michael Madsen, Eli Roth, Rosario Dawso, and Harvey Weinstein(!) will  be on hand to poke fun at the idiosyncratic director.  Sounds like it’ll be loads of fun, and I can only hope that some internet-friendly videographer is on hand to capture it.  Hit the jump for the official press release.

Miramax was a major part in the rise of the indie films in the late-80s, early-90s.  It’s difficult not to note the irony of the closing of Miramax coming at the end of this year’s Sundance Film Festival.  Sundance became a hot spot for the buying of the potential “next big thing” in the indie film world.  Keep in mind, this was back when a film could be truly independent and yet founders Bob and Harvey Weinstein (the name was a tribute to their parents, Miriam and Max), arguably the last of the movie moguls, could push artists like Kevin Smith and Steven Soderbergh and get their work into the mainstream.  Also, they could call Errol Morris boring and threaten to resolve the situation with an Errol Morris impersonator.  But that day passed long ago and while the success of Sundance lives on, Miramax, the scrappy studio bought buy Disney in 1993 and abandoned by the Weinsteins in 2005, is dead.  The Wrap reports that the New York and Los Angeles offices are closed and eighty people are now out of work.  The six movies they have awaiting distribution such as Julie Taymor’s The Tempest, and Last Night starring Sam Worthington and Keira Knightley, will see a very limited release at best and sit on the shelf forever at worst.

Hit the jump for more on Miramax’s passing.

Screen Daily reports that Vincent D’Onofrio has been perfectly cast to play Harvey Weinstein in the upcoming adaptation of Peter Biskind’s Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film.  As you can guess by the title, Biskind’s book chronicles the rise in popularity of independent films in the 90′s and how Miramax (which Harvey and his brother Bob Weinstein ran) played a huge role in everything.  Kenneth Bowser, who previously directed the documentary adaptation of Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘N’ Roll Generation Saved Hollywood,will be directing the film based off of a script by Dean Craig (Death at a Funeral) and Joshua James (Alien Uprising).  The always “trusty” IMDb also lists some interesting names like Matthew Perry, Andy Serkis, and Sally Hawkins as part of the cast.

I’ve read Down and Dirty Pictures and I can not stress enough how curious I am about this film.  I would think that making a documentary based off of the book would be the easier thing to do, since adapting the book into a film is going to require actors to play people who such as Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith.  Plus, there is a lot of story to be told.  One thing is certain though, it’s going to be one very interesting film whenever it comes out.

Few films in recent memory have generated as much pre-release speculation as Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds”.  Not only did the director suffer a series of derisive early reviews for his seventh feature, but his film’s commercial prospects also became inextricably linked to the very survival of the studio that nurtured him – The Weinstein Company.  So how did it all play out?  Let’s put it this way: we’ll probably have Harvey Weinstein to kick around for many years to come.  “Inglourious Basterds” scored the highest opening ever for a Tarantino flick – an estimated $14.3 million from 3,165 dates – and now charts as the second-highest R-rated August debut (usurping last week’s “District 9″).  Check back tomorrow for more on “Basterds” and the week’s other box office happenings.

With Quentin Tarantino’s new movie “Inglourious Basterds” set to invade theaters August 21^st, the Weinstein Company has released 9 movie clips and about 10 minutes of behind the scenes footage from when they were filming the movie. If you want to be spoiler free, this is not the article for you. But if you’re looking for a taste of the new Tarantino movie right now, you’ve come to the right place.

I saw a screening yesterday and have to say…it’s great. The film takes tons of surprising left and right turns, and if you’re a cinefile, there are tons of movie references you’ll appreciate. But with this being a Tarantino movie, would you expect anything less? Also, while all the performances were top notch, Christoph Waltz as Col. Hans Landa is a whole other level. You’ll see what I mean in a few weeks. Until then, watch the clips after the jump: