Walt Disney Press Conference - Final.

Original Source: FD (FAIR DISCLOSURE) WIRE

OPERATOR: Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the Walt Disney Studios/Miramax conference call. At this time, all participants have been placed on a listen-only mode and the floor will be open for questions following the presentation. (OPERATOR INSTRUCTIONS). It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to your host, Senior Vice President of Communications for Walt Disney Studios, Ms. Heidi Trotta. Ma'am, you may begin.

HEIDI TROTTA, SVP, COMMUNICATIONS, WALT DISNEY STUDIOS: Thank you Holly, good afternoon. Thank you for joining our press conference call. On the phone are Dick Cook, Chairman of Walt Disney Studios; Alan Bergman, Executive Vice President and CFO of the Walt Disney Studios and Bob and Harvey Weinstein, co-Chairmen of Miramax Films.

We will begin with remarks from Mr. Cook followed by Mr. Harvey Weinstein. We will then take a few of your questions. Now I'll turn the call over to Dick Cook, Chairman of the Walt Disney Studios.

DICK COOK, CHAIRMAN, WALT DISNEY STUDIOS: Thank you, Heidi, good afternoon. Let me begin by saying that over the past several months, we've been at the negotiating table with two of the most creative and passionate executives in the entertainment industry today, Harvey and Bob Weinstein. While the process was long and arduous, not to mention heavily reported in the media, it was always amicable and it was always about the business and about our shared passion for what we all love to do, make movies.

The exceptional duration of the 12-year relationship between Disney and the Weinsteins is certainly rare, particularly by Hollywood standards. It is also unparalleled in the remarkable contributions that were made to the important art of independent filmmaking. During their time as co-chairmen of Disney's Miramax film unit, there's no question that Harvey and Bob brought some of the finest award-winning films to the big screen. Through this association, Miramax and Dimension collectively added more than 550 film titles to the Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Library, a tremendous achievement. Needless to say, after a run such as this, it has been an extremely complicated effort to arrive at the deal we have reached today. We're pleased at say that we have come to a mutually beneficial arrangement which I will now outline for you.

First and foremost, Miramax films will remain as it has been for the last 12 years, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Walt Disney Company. It will continue to operate under the company's Walt Disney Studios division and the studio will retain ownership of the Miramax and Dimension film library, which as I stated earlier, consists of approximately 550 titles. Harvey and Bob will remain co-chairmen of Miramax Films until the expiration of their contract on September 30, 2005. During this time, the Weinsteins will focus their efforts on completing the films currently in production as well as marketing and distributing films currently in the pipeline and overseeing all day-to-day operations. There are 15 to 20 films scheduled for release in this time frame. Among them are Mind Hunters, Sin City, which opens up this Friday; Proof, The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl, the Brothers Grimm, the Great Raid and Underclassmen. Any new financial commitments made by Harvey and Bob from this point forward will be on behalf of their new yet to …