Word: weinstein
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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More than any other modern movie mogul, Miramax's Harvey Weinstein has changed the film industry, taking small, independent films out of the art-house ghetto and into the mainstream. He has also been skewered in a new book for his fearsome temper and ego. He talked with Time's Jeffrey Ressner about that reputation, and a Miramax film that suffered an unexpected snub...
Biskind's book fleshes out Weinstein's psyche as well as his sicko behavior--and it ain't pretty. He's depicted delivering death threats like a movie mafioso, expecting fealty like a feudal lord and bringing woe upon anyone who asks for back-end profit participation. From Affleck to director Ed Zwick, friends and enemies alike unload their hysterical, often horrifying Harvey stories. Gasp as the mad mogul pushes aside his fellow Shakespeare in Love producers onstage at the Oscars! Cower as he throws stuff across the room! Wince as he chews out loyal employees! And the critics rave...
...sharp contrast to Weinstein's brutish antics, Sundance founder Robert Redford's influence over the indie world is portrayed as Zen-like, though the actor's enigmatic, elusive nature keeps him mostly in shadows throughout the book. (Unlike Weinstein, Redford refused to talk to Biskind.) Still, Redford emerges long enough to double-cross his former protege, Steven Soderbergh, whose sex, lies, and videotape was shown in Park City in 1989, by plucking the movie Quiz Show out from under him. Redford sabotages his own efforts to launch a Sundance Cinemas chain by hooking up with a financially unstable partner...
While Redford and Weinstein constitute the Beauty-and-the-Beast heart of the story, much of Biskind's narrative revolves around the less well known (and, frankly, less colorful) figures responsible for the growth of indie-film distribution. As a work of history, it's not comprehensive: indie actor Ethan Hawke merits nearly a dozen lengthy references, while groundbreaking documentarians Errol Morris (The Fog of War) and Michael Moore (Bowling for Columbine) are barely mentioned. And Biskind found some sources reluctant to talk openly about more recent controversies. "There was a clarity of recollections," he admits, "but also a clash...
...Biskind himself, he might well want to consider placing himself in the author-relocation program. His "blood runs cold" imagining the wrath of Weinstein, he says in an interview. "I don't think he comes across as likable, but certainly the book credits him with taking independent film out of the art-house ghetto and into the multiplexes." Whether or not Biskind's book becomes a pulp nonfiction hit, one thing seems certain: he'll never eat lunch in Tribeca again...