The Weinstein Company excites fans of favourite films

The Weinstein Company and Miramax have re-entered into a production deal, thanks to new money and investors, that will see sequels to Shakespeare In Love and Rounders be put back on the production table.

The sequels to these cult classics stalled shortly after Disney sold off Miramax, for $663 million, to the investment firm Colony Capital in 2010.

 Harvey and Bob Weinstein founded Miramax in 1979 (naming it after their parents, Miriam and Max), building it into an independent moneymaking, movie-backing machine. They sold it to Disney in 1993 and broke away in 2005 to create TWC.

Five years later, wanting Miramax back, they tried to buy it, though they weren't willing to pony up the total asking price. But all’s well that ends for the brothers Weinstein, as Colony and its partner Qatar Holdings recently announced that the brothers are back in the fold.

Harvey boasted about the return of a key actor earlier this week.

“I’ve discussed making 'Rounders 2' with Matt Damon and I would say that’s going to be instantaneous,” the mogul declared. “The guys [writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman] have a great idea, a way to make it more international where you start the card game in Paris, that’s all I want to say. There might be a certain beautiful Parisian actress involved in it, and then we’re off to the racetrack and Vegas with Matty and Edward Norton, and a new supervillain to replace John Malkovich.”

There's talk that Robert De Niro is being eyed for that villain part.

Can they give De Niro as cool a name as Malkovich’s Teddy KGB? Who knows? But De Niro's character would undoubtedly put Damon's Mike McDermott through his poker paces, just as the great Teddy once did.