BREAKING The Weinstein boys are back at Miramax. Colony Capital principal Tom Barrack Jr and The Weinstein Company co-chairman Harvey and Bob Weinstein have set an alliance that will exploit the creative properties in the library that the brothers left behind when they exited Disney. The deal will span multiple years and multiple titles for films, TV series and live stage productions. Qatar Holding will finance these, with TWC steering development and distributing while Miramax distributes internationally.

They will get off the ground quickly with sequels to the Best Picture Oscar winner Shakespeare In Love and Rounders, and they will develop series transfers of Good Will Hunting and Flirting With Disaster. They will also shepherd a development library that includes The Alibi, a comedy scripted by Stephen Colbert about a service that cleans up messes and creates alibis for cheating spouses, and The Ninth Life Of Louis Drax, a script that was being developed by the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack.

“It’s like unlocking a kingdom full of gold, which Tom describes as diamonds,” said Harvey Weinstein, who several years ago competed to acquire Miramax only to watch Barrack purchase the library-rich asset for $660 million. “In an age where there is so much demand for television, we see a lot of TV series. I personally have never made a sequel, but I will make Shakespeare In Love as one. I’ve always wanted to do that and now we have the impetus to. There is so much intellectual property, and we’re in an age where, for however long it lasts, content is king. Working with Qatar and Colony will for us be a great learning experience. Tom is one of the smartest businessmen in the world. We’ll learn by his side and we’re excited to work with Rob Lowe.

“I’ve discussed making Rounders 2 with Matt Damon and I would say that’s going to be instantaneous,” Weinstein continued. “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.” Weinstein is eyeing Robert De Niro for that role.

The deals makes strong sense for the Weinsteins, who know the library titles and development better than anyone, since they initiated them. For Qatar and Colony Capital, this finally gives Miramax a way to mine the creative potential of the library, after it has done so well exploiting the value of library which will be enhanced by new productions. While Miramax has flirted with generating productions before, Barrack said they just weren’t ready. At the same time, TWC was resurrecting itself after forays into ancillary industries that didn’t work out and distracted the Weinsteins from their core business. Both companies are stable, Barrack said, and this seemed the perfect time to make this arrangement and do something with the iconic Miramax titles.

Said Barrack: “From the beginning, Harvey and I always friends. When we went to acquire this library after Rob Lowe and I had the idea, the first call was to Harvey. When Continental Holdings made its first foray into the business, we weren’t really ready, or knowledgeable enough, to know how important it was to farm the content available in this library. We acquired that unknown, with 250 projects in development. The other surprise to us was the the value of the library and that the unbelievable brand that Bob and Harvey created was itself a gigantic marketing tool. We acquired the library the entire library for about $660 million, and within 16 months, we had doubled the cash flow. We had financed 100% of equity out. The interests rates went down in that era and reduced our overall costs by about 300 basis points. Most importantly, digital had now come into play. So we made deals with Netflix, Hulu and the other digital players, who instantly were ready to buy Miramax. It wasn’t just film, it was the Miramax genre, and we harvested that without a big creative ability at all.”

Miramax made noises about it. Back at 2011 Cannes, then chief Mike Lang and Lowe came to the festival to talk up its production plans and film acquisitions, a strategy that was to begin early the following year. Those plans never went anywhere and Lang left the company. The efforts have been managed by vet producer/exec Adam Fields, whom, Barrack said, has helped moving several projects forward, and helping to in the education process. He will continue in that role and liason with TWC, Barrack said.

“Fast forward and now we are in a very great place, we tripled cash flow of the company, have such strong revenues that it made us comfortable getting into entertainment, but we are also very comfortable with Harvey and Bob,” Barrack said. “We decided, let’s go back to the simple thing. If you’re going to mine those projects, the best people to do that were the ones who created it. So we went back to Harvey and Bob. They are in a position with TWC where they can take on more things themselves. It was the right time, the right place, the right product and no better filmmaker in the world than Harvey. We’ve got these two entities, with TWC doing domestic distribution and Miramax doing international distribution. Combining this effort, we don’t have the problem of not being able to distribute to everybody as the conglmerates do. Everybody else has their own silos, cable companies, studios, they have their own pay per view and digital. We are really excited. The moment is perfect. It doesn’t matter who’s the winner, Netflix, Hulu, theatrical exhibition, episodic TV which Harvey will be a king at, his portfolio speaks for itself. Whether it’s Facebook, somebody has to tell that story, somebody has to be able to make a movie or TV to provide it.”