The backers of the Paddington films are thought to be seeking to scrap the Weinstein Company’s lucrative deal to distribute the upcoming sequel in the US, in the wake of the sexual harassment and assault allegations against its co-founder Harvey Weinstein.

A source close to Heyday Films, the co-producer of Paddington with the French company StudioCanal, said the family film should have no association with TWC.

“It is deeply frustrating that a film made with such love and care and a character of such positive and generous spirit might, in some way, be tarnished with the brush of these horrific, wholly unacceptable, acts,” said a source close to Heyday, also the producer of Harry Potter and Gravity.

The move to terminate TWC’s contract to market and launch Paddington 2, which stars the Downton Abbey actor Hugh Bonneville, would be a setback to efforts to engineer a deal to save the company.

The original Paddington made $268m (£203m) globally, the fourth biggest film TWC has been involved with since launching in 2005. It is the eighth biggest film the Weinsteins have distributed in the US, where they take their cut from the success of the Paddington films, making it a lucrative franchise the company can ill afford to lose.



Bob Weinstein, Harvey’s brother and TWC co-founder, has publicly cited the box office potential for Paddington 2, which launches in the UK in November and the US in January, to try to portray a picture of business as usual at the embattled company.

Paddington 2 is likely to be its biggest hit since Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained in 2012 – which made $425m globally – and failure to keep the contract would send the strongest signal yet that with Harvey Weinstein gone and a name change in the works others in the film industry will not do business with the company.

It is understood that StudioCanal and Heyday are trying to wrest control of Paddington 2’s distribution in the US back and give it to a rival to market, promote and distribute.



“TWC has had nothing to do with the making of Paddington and Paddington 2. They simply acquired the North American distribution right,” said the source. “When dealing with people’s lives it feels inappropriate to comment on the business of film. Suffice to say our hope is that another distributor will be found.”

Paddington 2 is the biggest of seven films TWC is involved with that is scheduled for release in the coming months.

Bob Weinstein has said it is business as usual for the release of Polaroid, Paddington 2 and the Robert De Niro comedy War with Grandpa.

Benedict Cumberbatch, star of the company’s potentially award-contending period drama The Current War, recently said he was “utterly disgusted” by Weinstein’s actions.

The film was due to be released at the end of November, but has now been put back to some point in 2018 to try to avoid the toxic fallout that could kill its awards ambitions.

There have been reports that agents have been pushing the company to sell the other finished, or nearly finished films, due for release by March: The Upside, a comedy starring Kevin Hart and Nicole Kidman, and Mary Magdelene starring Rooney Mara. Mark Wahlberg’s Six Billion Dollar Man, a remake of the hit 1970s TV show, is pencilled in for 2019.

TWC is in talks with the private equity firm Colony Capital, which has thrown the company an immediate cash lifeline, about a possible sale of some or all of its assets.

Assets include a library of almost 100 films, a slate of upcoming releases and projects in development, and a TV division, with credits including Netflix’s Marco Polo, the BBC’s War and Peace and the reality fashion show Project Runway. Last year, Harvey Weinstein valued the business at at least $800m, but after the crisis that has engulfed the company it is likely to be sold for less.

Colony Capital is a previous owner of the film studio Miramax, which it bought from Disney for $660m (£497m) in 2010 and sold to the Qatari broadcaster BeIn Media last year. Bob and Harvey Weinstein founded Miramax, the studio behind films such as Pulp Fiction and The English Patient, three decades ago and sold it to Disney in 1993.



StudioCanal declined to comment. TWC had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.