Mike Lang, chief executive of Miramax, has unexpectedly resigned after joining the company a little over a year ago. Lang is temporarily serving as a consultant for Steve Schoch, Miramax's chief financial officer, who has taken on the position of interim chief executive.

Lang, a former executive at News Corp., which owns Dow Jones & Co. and the Wall Street Journal, had been responsible for acquiring Myspace.com and a stake in Hulu at his former job. Lang joined Miramax after the Walt Disney Company sold it in 2010 for approximately $660 million. The former Miramax CEO was responsible for the Hulu and Netflix distribution deals that allowed more than 700 films in the Miramax library to be streamed. The deal was successful in generating fresh revenue, Marketwatch.com reported.

Under Lang's leadership the company has expanded not only in size, but in its number of ventures. Miramax grew from a handful of employees to around 70 present employees. The company has also partnered with the popular social networking site Facebook. An app named Miramax eXperience was created to allow Facebook users to watch clips of the studio's films, or rent the full movies, for 30 Facebook credits.

Miramax was also able to release three movies last year, one being The Debt, which starred Helen Mirren and Jessica Chastain. Lang had also joined forces with The Weinstein Co. to work on sequels to Bad Santa and Rounders.

Business Week believes that the resignation indicates the company is trying to become a full-fledged studio, a sale, or more of the same just under new leadership.

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