Rob Weisbach Named President and Chief Executive Officer of Miramax Books and President and Chief Executive Officer of WeinsteinCo New Book Venture

Rob Weisbach Named President and Chief Executive Officer of Miramax Books and President and Chief Executive Officer of WeinsteinCo New Book Venture

Bob and Harvey Weinstein to Continue Overseeing Miramax Books Through September 30, 2007

Miramax Books imprint and backlist to remain part of the Walt Disney Company

NEW YORK, April 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Rob Weisbach has been appointed president and chief executive officer of Miramax Books, it was announced today by Miramax co-chairmen Bob and Harvey Weinstein. In addition to this new role, Weisbach is simultaneously being named president and chief executive officer of the Book Imprint of the Weinstein's new venture, temporarily named WeinsteinCo. Weisbach assumes his new roles effective April 11, 2005 and will report to Bob and Harvey Weinstein at both companies.

(Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050405/NYTU155 )

In his role at Miramax Books, Weisbach will oversee the publication of Miramax Books' scheduled publications currently under contract through September 30, 2007. Weisbach will report to Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who will maintain a non-exclusive relationship with Miramax Books through September 30, 2007. Miramax Books will continue to publish their books through Hyperion and Hyperion Books for Children.

Current books scheduled for publication by Miramax Books include such eagerly anticipated titles as Barbara Walters' memoirs; Freedom, written by Malika Oufkir, the sequel to the New York Times bestseller Stolen Lives; Rudolph Giuliani's memoir of his years as a New York prosecutor; Silverfin, the first novel in the Young Bond series written by Charlie Higson; Artemis Fowl: The Opal Deception, the fourth book in the New York Times bestselling series by Eoin Colfer; and The King in the Window by Adam Gopnik. WeinsteinCo. will have a financial interest in the books that are published by Miramax Books in fiscal years 2006 and 2007 that are currently scheduled for publication.

Robert Miller, president of Hyperion (ABC's adult books division) and Deborah Dugan, president of Disney Publishing Worldwide (which includes Disney's children's books division) will be responsible for acquiring all future titles (for adults and children respectively) for the Miramax Books imprint, which will continue as an ongoing imprint within Disney. The Walt Disney Company will retain the name "Miramax Books" and the Miramax Books backlist of already published books.

In his role at WeinsteinCo, Weisbach will immediately begin seeking out and acquiring new projects for the Book division of the Weinsteins' new venture, where he will be responsible for their publication. It is anticipated that new titles acquired by WeinsteinCo. will be distributed by Hyperion and Disney Publishing Worldwide. Details about the Weinsteins' new company, including its name, financial backers and other specifics, will be announced during the next several weeks.

"Great writers are the common denominator for successful books and films and we take special pride in the talented authors we have worked with at Miramax Books," said Harvey Weinstein. "Our new agreement with Rob highlights our ongoing commitment to our current authors at Miramax Books and demonstrates our utmost confidence in Rob's ability to identify talented authors and a diverse range of projects to bring into our new company. It's been great working with Bob Miller on building Miramax Books over the past 12 years and we look forward to future successful collaborations."

Rob Weisbach stated, "Miramax Books is fueled by powerful voices and remarkable lives, and I look forward to publishing this stellar list of authors with energy and care. It is, at the same time, a great thrill to be asked to join Harvey and Bob as they create a visionary new integrated media company. My team and I will help build a publishing division that will provide a nurturing home for writers of superior talent, work aggressively to help all variety of booksellers bring our titles to a broad audience, and find new ways to close the gap between traditional publishing and the next- generation consumer."

Weisbach is joining Miramax Books after spending three years as vice president and editor-at-large at Simon & Schuster, where he published select fiction and nonfiction titles with the Simon & Schuster adult trade division. There, he worked with authors including CBS News Anchor Bob Schieffer, Emmy Award-winning comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, Russian wunderkind Irina Denezhkina, critically acclaimed novelist Bruce Wagner, and influential civil rights attorney Evan Wolfson. His recent bestsellers include The Know- It-All by Esquire writer A.J. Jacobs and The Funny Thing Is ... by Ellen DeGeneres.

Prior to Simon & Schuster, Weisbach was president and publisher of Rob Weisbach Books at William Morrow. The imprint's launch title, The Tenth Justice, by first time novelist Brad Meltzer, became an instant New York Times bestseller, as did such books as Babyhood by Paul Reiser, Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart, and Book by Whoopi Goldberg. Among the other bestselling and critically acclaimed writers Weisbach published at the imprint were A.M. Homes (Music for Torching) and Amanda Davis (Circling the Drain); filmmakers Tim Burton and Ethan Coen; humorist Sandra Bernhard, painter and nature writer James Prosek, and U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky.

Rob Weisbach Books received industry accolades for innovation in marketing and jacket and catalogue design, and became known for launching grass roots initiatives such as the Virgin Fiction contest and for publishing state-of- the-art visual books including The Pop-Up Book of Phobias and the companion to Jonathan Larson's Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Rent. Other imprint titles included The Nazi Officer's Wife, the Holocaust memoir by Edith Hahn; the Lambda award-winning Openly Bob by pioneer gay standup Bob Smith; and Use Me, the acclaimed fiction debut of Vanity Fair contributor Elissa Schappell.

Weisbach began his publishing career as an editorial assistant at Bantam Doubleday Dell in 1989 and was named Senior Editor in 1992. There, he published three consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers: Seinlanguage by Jerry Seinfeld; Couplehood by Paul Reiser; and My Point ... And I Do Have One by Ellen DeGeneres. Among his other titles at BDD were Feeling the Spirit by New York Times photographer Chester Higgins, Jr.; O'Keeffe: The Life of an American Legend, a biography of the artist by Jeffery Hogrefe; and Alice, an urban fairy tale for children by Whoopi Goldberg.

Miramax Books began in 1993 after Hyperion's Robert Miller met Harvey Weinstein to discuss ways that Hyperion could leverage Miramax Films' award- winning scripts and stories into an ancillary business. Under Miller's leadership, the resulting label -- Miramax Books -- revolutionized the market for screenplays by using highly innovative sales techniques to expose moviegoers to great written works. Miramax Books initially published novels, screenplays and some related written materials including the screenplay from The Piano, the 1993 Academy Award winning Best Picture written by Jane Campion, which became the highest selling screenplay ever; a novelization from The Piano, which sold more than 100,000 copies; and Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction screenplay, which sold more than 180,000 copies in the United States, breaking previous records. Miramax slowly expanded, until the creation of Talk Media in 1999. In 2000, Talk's editor-in-chief and president Tina Brown brought Jonathan Burnham to the book division. Over the next five years, Burnham worked with Susan Mercandetti, Weinstein and the rest of the Miramax Books staff in creating one of the most successful imprints in publishing. The book division has published 29 New York Times Best-sellers, six of which have been in the #1 spot including Leadership, by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Leap of Faith, by Queen Noor, Big Russ & Me, by Tim Russert, Summerland, by Michael Chabon, Artemis Fowl III: The Eternity Code, by Eoin Colfer, and Ice Bound, by Dr. Jerri Nielsen.

Some of the other New York Times Best-sellers published by Miramax Books include Madam Secretary, a memoir by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Kristen Gore's debut novel Sammy's Hill, the Bartimaeus Trilogy, written by Jonathan Stroud, Artemis Fowl and Artemis Fowl: The Arctic Incident, by Eoin Colfer, Bergdorf Blondes, by Plum Sykes, and A Density of Souls, by Christopher Rice.

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Source: Miramax Books

CONTACT: Matthew Hiltzik, +1-212-941-3883, or Sarah Levinson,
+1-212-941-3875, both of Miramax; or Claire McKinney of Miramax Books,
+1-917-606-5503, claire.mckinney@miramax.com

Web site: http://www.miramax.com/

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