What do Meryl Streep, Jake Gyllenhaal, and the Estate of Wes Craven have in common?
They’re all party to a document filed Monday in a Delaware bankruptcy court objecting to the sale of the Weinstein Company to Lantern Capital under Chapter 11 proceedings. Bill Murray, Robert De Niro, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Rachel McAdams were also named. Quentin Tarantino filed a separate objection.
The named counterparties are all still owed money by the Weinstein Co., and they’re objecting to the sale because the latest agreement contains no guarantee that they’ll be paid. On Friday, Lantern Capital agreed to assume at least $8.75 million in “cure” payments in return for a $21 million discount on the sale price.
That $8.75 million won’t be enough to cover all the money the Weinstein Co. owes—Tarantino alone claims he’s owed $4.3 million—and there’s no indication of which contracts Lantern would make good. Whichever contracts Lantern Capital didn’t pick up would go back to the Weinstein Co.’s estate, where they would be very unlikely to be paid out.
Unpaid contracts have been a major sticking point in the negotiations between Weinstein Co. and Lantern Capital. The Weinstein Co. is seeking approval for the sale on Wednesday and hopes to finalize the deal on Friday, just days before it runs out of bankruptcy financing.
