Harvey Weinstein made headlines again recently as his conviction on counts of r*pe in New York was reportedly overturned by the New York Court of Appeals. The former studio head became the catalyst for the ‘#MeToo’ and ‘Time’sUp’ movements across the globe and his conviction was regarded as a huge victory for the movement.
Weinstein was known for his alleged unethical business practices even before his serious crimes came to the forefront. He came under fire recently when it became known that his company Miramax reportedly removed author Neil Gaiman’s credits from the posters of the English version of Studio Ghibli’s Princess Mononoke. Gaiman had reportedly been the main translator of the project.
Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Removed Neil Gaiman’s Credits From Princess Mononoke
Harvey Weinstein‘s r*pe conviction was reportedly recently overturned by the New York Court of Appeals. The former studio head was reportedly convicted of r*pe in 2020 in New York as well as in Los Angeles. His New York conviction was reportedly overturned as the Court of Appeals considered the trial unfair and ordered a new trial. (via BBC).
Weinstein has always been regarded as an aggressive studio executive who would stop at nothing to succeed. His infamous marketing campaign to get his production Shakespeare in Love a Best Picture Oscar has often been regarded as the day the Academy Awards changed completely. Recently, Neil Gaiman mentioned that his credits were removed from the English version of the Studio Ghibli film Princess Mononoke by Miramax Studios.
Miramax reportedly bought the rights for the English dubbed version of the successful Japanese film and commissioned Gaiman to work on the translation. Gaiman mentioned that his name was removed from the credits in favor of the studio executives’ own names as there were too many names on the poster. Gaiman said in a post on X (formerly Twitter),
It’s true. (My name was taken off the poster by Miramax execs who were told by Ghibli that there were too many names on the poster. So they kept theirs on and took mine off. Which wasn’t quite what Ghibli had intended.) https://t.co/VGEyIyyaw8
— Neil Gaiman (@neilhimself) April 4, 2022
Gaiman had also spoken about the incident in a post from 2019 where he called his involvement his biggest secret. He also mentioned that his name was omitted from the posters and the DVD box. Miramax executives could reportedly do this as his name was ‘contractually expendable’ (via X).
Neil Gaiman And Hayao Miyazaki Fought Hard For A Pure Version Of Princess Mononoke
Neil Gaiman reportedly crossed swords with Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax studios multiple times while working on Princess Mononoke. The author of beloved novels such as Coroline and Good Omens reportedly had to square off with Miramax and Disney, who had bought the rights to the English version of Princess Mononoke, to stop them from Westernizing the film.
Hayao Miyazaki’s films are almost always culturally rooted and Gaiman was reportedly told by Miyazaki to not add or remove any of the poetic words that he had written. Gaiman also mentioned that he put a lot of effort into making sure that the two songs retained their original essence in the English version (via The Herald-Times).
According to the documentary, Hayao Miyazaki in the USA, Disney reportedly asked the Studio Ghibli co-founder if the violence in the film should be toned down to make it more suitable for children which the legendary animator rejected as he wanted kids to know how to control violence and not ignore it.
Disney and Miramax reportedly also tried to change many of the Japanese words such as ‘Samurai’ as they were not American enough. However, Neil Gaiman reportedly fought for the word to be included and not change it into ‘warriors’ which the studio wanted. Miramax reportedly also wanted to cut down the runtime of the film to which Studio Ghibli reportedly sent him a ‘katana’, saying that there would be no cuts in the film (via Hayao Miyazaki in the USA).
Princess Mononoke is currently streaming on Max.
