Unknown White Male Marks the End of Wellspring

Indiewire's Eugene Hernandez reports this morning that controversial doc Unknown White Male will mark the final theatrical release for distributor Wellspring, all as part of Wellspring's coming intermingling with The Weinstein Company. All planned Wellspring releases will be distributed by The Weinstein Co., with Wellspring moving to Santa Monica and becoming a home entertainment/DVD distributor.

While the controversy over Unknown White Male's nonfiction status (which we wrote about last week) is not the cause of the decision to close up shop (the deal had apparently been in the works for some time), it is interesting that Wellspring's theatrical arm may have their most high profile (and potentially most successful) film about to open as news hits.

Among those out of a job with the new move is Wellspring head of acquisitions Marie Therese Guirgis, who was among those defending Unknown White Male this week.

More striking for independent filmmakers is that yet another small distribution company, one that took on great films like Tarnation and The Beat That My Heart Skipped, is no more, swallowed whole by a company that will likely focus on films that star the woman from Desparate Housewives and the former 007.

Comments

[Sujewa Ekanayake]

Time for some new indie filmmaker/distributors/entrepenuers to fill the void w/ a new distro co. that picks up & puts out the kind of movies Wellspring used to put out.

I wonder if art/indie distro is a project people take on in their 20's & 30's, and then when they get older, I wonder if they move on to Full On Indiewood like when they hit their 40's & 50's. This is just a random thought, I have no idea about the ages of the founders/owners/decision makers @ Wellspring.

Later.

Sujewa
*******

[dvd]

This news really upsets me. Wellspring was my favorite distributor - I always looked forward to their releases. Yet another reason to dislike the Weinsteins.

[AJ Schnack]

I think that part of the reason many of these companies come to an end are simple business issues related to working with indie films - everything from competing to get titles in the first place (which may mean promising more than you can truthfully deliver) to getting the theaters to actually pay you your take (can you believe that this kind of thing goes on? well, it does, every freaking day).

But yeah, losing Wellspring is a pretty huge blow for indie filmmakers and audiences.