THB #192: Remember The Dependents

Note: I did a very late night rant on social media on Sunday/Monday on the difference between disagreeing and trying to silence others. If you didn’t catch it from the wee small hours of your inbox, it’s here.

I was plowing through Ken Auletta’s modestly disappointing Harvey Weinstein book over the weekend and then, as a result of reading in the book about a buried documentary by Barry Avrich about Harvey, I tracked down and watched the buried doc about Harvey and I was struck by the discussion of the major studio investments in independent film at the time in both pieces.

Miramax and Pulp Fiction certainly made a major impression on the majors and were part of their interest in the indie arena. But it certainly wasn’t the singular Pied Piper that the book makes it out to be. (More on this in a bit.)

It also struck me that the influence of Miramax on the larger studios investing in the indie business was not dissimilar to the influence of Netflix and how it has drawn the legacy majors…