Weinstein Company getting into games

Last month, The Weinstein Company (TWC) racked up a series of Academy Awards for one of its latest projects, The King's Speech. Today, the film studio and distribution company announced that it is venturing into a field far removed from art-house cinema--games.

According to a statement released this morning, the Weinstein Company will base its games on its catalog of "strong and recognizable properties," as well as those of its sister distributor Dimension Films. The latter's library includes such films as Scream, Hellraiser, Halloween, Scary Movie, and Children of the Corn.

The TWC Games label will produce titles for mobile, social, and console platforms in association with "external partners." The first such partner is Beefy Media, a consulting and game production company that will help "foster relationships with publishers." No specific companies were mentioned in the announcement, but Beefy's website says it has aided in development of such titles as Capcom's Final Fight: Double Impact, Dark Void, and the Bionic Commando remake.

The Weinstein Company was created in 2005 when cofounders Bob and Harvey Weinstein left Miramax Films, the studio they cofounded in 1979 and was sold to Disney in 1993. Since its foundation, the company has distributed such films as The Reader (2008) and Inglourious Basterds (2009), both of which were nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award.