Former producer and now convicted s-x offender Harvey Weinstein was pretty infamous for his backstage antics and was nicknamed Harvey Scissorhands for his often brutal edits. And being a control freak, the disgraced producer would threaten certain filmmakers of deliberately sabotaging their movies if the final cut wasn’t up the former Miramax owner’s alley.
Similar things occurred with director James Gray’s The Immigrant, starring Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix, as the director recalled how Weinstein sabotaged the film’s box office run.
Harvey Weinstein Sabotaged The Immigrant Over Disagreement With Director
It wasn’t anything new for Harvey Weinstein to kill off a movie in order to seek his personal gains. And in The Immigrant‘s case, after a disagreement broke out between him and James Gray over the film’s final cut, Gray claimed that the Miramax producer threatened to sabotage the film by giving it a TV release. While this didn’t end up being the case, Weinstein did kill off the film’s box office run by deliberately giving it a small release, even though the film opened to rave reviews after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival. Gray told The Telegraph:
“Harvey burying the movie was a very self-destructive act, which was basically an extension of the rejection of him. It violated his narcissistic principles. When you don’t do exactly what he wants, it doesn’t matter that it’s in his self-interest to protect the film – he doesn’t see it that way.”
But despite Weinstein’s attempts to sabotage The Immigrant, James Grey remained unfazed, expressing that if his film has any value, “somebody will discover it years from now”.
Harvey Weinstein Resorted to Unethical Tactics to Hurt Robin Williams’ Payday
Apart from sabotaging The Immigrant‘s box office run over his personal grudge with the Marion Cotillard-led film’s director, he also limited Good Will Hunting‘s box office run to hurt Robin Williams‘ payday. While the Matt Damon-led film did extremely well at the box office, grossing over $225M in no time, Kevin Smith claimed Harvey Weinstein deliberately pulled the film off the theatres to avoid paying Robin Williams. Per ET Canada, Smith explained,
“I remember they pulled that movie out of theaters while it was still earning at the time… From what I remember, Robin’s split would be even greater and he’d get a bigger percentage if it crossed $100 million, so every dollar the movie made at the theatrical box office would have to be split-I’m not sure if it was a 50/50 split-with Robin Williams.”
While Weinstein once claimed he cuts movies to make them work, following the numerous reports surrounding his backstage antics, it’s pretty evident he wasn’t the most suitable person to work under.
The Immigrant is available to rent on Apple TV.
Source: The Telegraph, ET Canada
