Harvey replies to Patrick
Hollywood Wiretap's Tom Tapp has posted Harvey Weinstein's reply to Patrick Goldstein's "what happened to the old Harvey?" piece that ran a few days ago in the L.A. Times. Weinstein's answer is published in today's Calendar section but not online (and barely visible in the paper) so Tapp has reproduced it for everyone's reading pleasure:
"Goldstein says he misses 'the Harvey Weinstein (he) used to know,'" Weinstein begins, "claiming that 'the Oscar impresario who...was truly, madly, deeply in love with movies' has been replaced by a 'slimmed-down mogul...who has lost his way.'
"I never fell out of love with movies," Weinstein insists. "I did have to spend time building the infrastructure of our new company, but we still produced films I'm extremely proud of, like Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez's daring Grindhouse, Anthony Minghella's beautiful Breaking and Entering"and the politically charged Bobby."
Wells replies: Some of us found Breaking and Entering a bit lethargic, Harvey. And if Bobby had in fact been politically charged it might have been a whole different kettle of fish.
"Moreover, Patrick knows full well (because I told him) that I decided to rededicate myself to cutting-edge movies six months ago," Weinstein continues. "That's why I went to Sundance in January and bought La Misma Luna, Grace Is Gone, Dedication and Teeth. He also knows (because I told him) that as a result of my rededication, the Weinstein Co. (sic.) will have three movies in the official selection at Cannes next month -- Michael Moore's Sicko, Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, and Wong Kar Wai's My Blueberry Nights, which is being featured as the opening-night movie.
"In addition, we are co-financing the Portuguese-language Elite Squad (the same way we did City of God); Wayne Kramer's >Crossing Over starring Sean Penn and Harrison Ford; Denzel Washington's The Great Debaters; Richard Shepherd's Spring Break in Bosnia and Stephen Daldry's The Reader, written by David Hare.
"As I told Patrick, it was six months ago that my brother Bob told me, 'It's time for you to get back to making and acquiring movies -- to the kind of movies you were once known for.' Since then, I've been doing just that -- and it's just like the good old days."
Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 21, 2007 at 12:23 PM
comment #1
drgogol
says ...
This letter has been online for many hours.
This is the best link for the full content of Calendar, 7 days a week, letters and corrections included:
http://www.calendarlive.com/printedition/calendar/more/
Posted by drgogol
at April 21, 2007 12:53 PM
comment #2
Jeremy King
says ...
BOBBY is just like the good old days? Well...I guess it's better than The English Patient.
Posted by Jeremy King
at April 21, 2007 12:59 PM
comment #3
Noah
says ...
Just like the good old days, taking films away from filmmakers like George Hickenlooper and then recutting them to make them more "audience-friendly" and then dumping the film when it doesn't get a nomination.
Posted by Noah
at April 21, 2007 1:53 PM
comment #4
christian
says ...
well, outside of the recutting thing, anybody who would greenlight a three hour GRINDHOUSE film has a lot of showmanship left.
Posted by christian
at April 21, 2007 2:12 PM
comment #5
D.Z.
says ...
"The Harvey Weinstein I used to know — the Oscar impresario who collected gifted young filmmakers the way Tiger Woods accumulates golf titles — was truly, madly, deeply in love with movies."
He was in love with the ones he didn't hack up and bury.
"He was the man behind "City of God," "Amélie," "Shakespeare in Love," "Pulp Fiction," "In the Bedroom," "sex, lies, and videotape," "Trainspotting" and "Sling Blade," to name but a few."
Boring, pretentious, and exploitive.
"I miss the old Harvey, the man who would've locked "Grindhouse" auteurs Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez in an editing room until they cut 40 minutes out of their movie."
Yeah, and release dubbed versions of subbed films, because he thought audiences were to stupid to be able to read.
"No one has ever screamed at me over the phone the way Weinstein did — the obscenities and insults rolling off his tongue like sweat off a boxer."
You wouldn't, if you actually worked for him.
'But I still miss the old Harvey, who used to confront filmmakers when they were arrogant or indifferent to audience concerns, as he did when he got into a screaming fight with Tarantino in the lobby of a multiplex in Seattle over the filmmaker's refusal to trim "Jackie Brown."That was the Harvey who almost single-handedly dragged independent film into the commercial mainstream,"'
It's not "independent" when it's chopped up. And a mainstream independent film is an oxymoron.
"championed young film talent"
More like washed-up 30-somethings.
"and turned the Oscars into a brilliant marketing weapon for his art-house acquisitions."
It's more like his entire career's built around Oscar bait and nothing more.
'not to mention from pursuing a larger investment in "The Lord of the Rings"'
That was all Harvey, not Eisner.
Posted by D.Z.
at April 21, 2007 8:29 PM
comment #6
CitizenKanedforChewingGum
says ...
D.Z. - feel free to explain to me how Trainspotting or City of God (we won't even go near Pulp Fiction) are boring, pretentious, or exploitive. Actually, that description better suits a lot of those asian films that seem to get your dick wet. Scorn the dubbing/re-cutting of those films all you will, but a lot of that Miramax/Dimension money kept some of your beloved Hong Kong filmmakers in business an extra year or two.
Idiot.
Posted by CitizenKanedforChewingGum
at April 22, 2007 12:03 PM
comment #7
D.Z.
says ...
City of God is mostly a snuff film, and clearly pandering to white flight, by making blacks the killers. Trainspotting is about junky Scotts re-enacting 60s European flicks. And the Miramax/Dimension cuts only served to keep Asian talent off U.S. shores for half a decade.
Posted by D.Z.
at April 22, 2007 6:20 PM
comment #8
sunny82
says ...
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Posted by sunny82
at December 30, 2010 1:35 AM