In his now yearly chat with the good folks over at Deadline, producer/mogul Harvey Weinstein sat down with the website to discuss his success with The Imitation Game, the problems with Grace of Monaco and his reputation of recutting some of his films, including Monaco and Snowpiercer.
On Grace of Monaco:
“…The script we signed on for was like ‘The King’s Speech,’ with the big moment where Princess Grace steps up. That is what attracted Nicole….I’d seen rushes that were great… The director is French, and he turned it more into a Hitchcock movie like a paean to ‘Vertigo,’ which ironically Grace wasn’t in. The writer, Arash Amel, called me and said, what happened to my script. It’s like welcome to Hollywood…”
“The director refused and criticized me profusely,” he continued. “That moniker of Harvey Scissorhands has always followed me and simply put, it was made up by a competitor who probably has re-cut more movies than I have. I’ve never cut a movie behind anybody’s back. We told Olivier what we were doing, and asked him to come for the test.”
His moniker was further “enhanced” when another film, last year’s Snowpiercer, was finished. Weinstein was worried the film wouldn’t play to large crowds and a big, countrywide launch in the USA, which was further enhanced when the film bombed in Australia after such a launch. Still to receive a UK release, Weinstein said about the film: “I didn’t see the movie as commercial in a 2500 screen launch, which they wanted to do….I saw it as an art house film, the way he directed it. I said we should cut 20 minutes and a few other things……the movie didn’t work anywhere except for America where we did this VOD platform and it was a spectacular hit. Nobody writes that article, one that says, that son of a bitch was right.”
Around the world, particularly in the US, The Weinstein Company are having great success with The Intimation Game, starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, which has grossed over $60million in the US, making it the biggest independent release of 2014, beating previous leader The Grand Budapest Hotel. He discusses the power and differences of Netflix, VOD and theatres, but on Imitation’s release and grosses, Weinstein said:
“….It doesn’t work for everybody but it works on some movies. You look at Imitation Game and American Sniper. Imitation Game this weekend will break Grand Budapest Hotel’s record as the biggest grossing movie this year in independent film. It’s on its way to do 100 million dollars before the Oscars….We went from 1500 to 2000 and next weekend 2500 and eventually 3000 theaters. So you have eyeballs that will now watch the Oscars because of Budapest, because of Imitation Game, because of American Sniper. I don’t care if the smallest movie wins but I want people to watch the Oscars because all the movies profit by the attention and publicity. American Sniper, doing the kind of business it does, that’s exhibit A for the health of movie theaters. That’s the zeitgeist hit.”
You can read the full interview with Harvey Weinstein over at Deadline, where he also discusses the Sony hack, Netflix and his new projects with them, Quentin Tarantino and the future of 70MM.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszH_jfuJoo8HCG1-lGjvfH2F&x-yt-ts=1422327029&v=ZflPU6YICpo&x-yt-cl=84838260&feature=player_embedded
Originally published January 28, 2015. Updated April 13, 2018.
