Word: weinstein
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Harvey Weinstein and his quieter brother Bob are among the last old-fashioned film moguls, known in the business for their flash and their foresight. After building their studio, Miramax, from the ground up, they proceeded to make bold, unexpected choices - such as producing Quentin Tarantino's edgy Pulp Fiction in 1994 and bringing Hong Kong auteur Wong Kar-wai to American screens in 1996 - that have inspired packs of copycats...
...Industry eyes were therefore watching closely last month when Harvey announced that the brothers' new venture, the Weinstein Company (TWC), would oversee a $285 million fund for the production and distribution of roughly 30 "Asian films" in total - that is, movies made in Asia, by Asian filmmakers, or about Asian subjects. The move is expected to help the Weinsteins make important savings at a time when North American box-office takings are flattening out and production costs are on the rise. (The Weinsteins' five-month-old Grindhouse cost $53 million to make, according to the brothers, but has earned just...
...Weinsteins even inspired an online petition to Disney, signed by 14,000 movie fans demanding that the brothers "cease the act of altering Hong Kong films." "If you do this and that for different audiences," says Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi, "you lose the whole raison d'être of your cultural mark. There's a certain energy or stamp or mark on a film that says 'this is a Hong Kong film.'" And not just those. Last year, French director Luc Besson publicly criticized the Weinstein's handling of his animated feature, Arthur and the Invisibles: "They changed...
...fund will not simply project Asian products on Western screens, it will bring to Asian films what Weinstein calls a "Western sensibility." So far the slate includes a live-action film of the fable Mulan; a martial arts team-up of Jackie Chan and Jet Li; and a remake of the 1954 classic, The Seven Samurai, which transplants Kurosawa's besieged Japanese village to the outskirts of Bangkok and recasts the Japanese fighters as mercenary soldiers, three of whom speak English...
...Weinstein habit of retelling of Asian stories through what they call "Western storytelling techniques" has seen backlash. TWC bought Shaolin Soccer - the highest grossing film in China's history - only to recut, dub, and delay its release. Fans of the original raged online. Chen Kaige's The Promise wasn't even that lucky. The Weinsteins ordered months of re-cutting, only to drop it completely and hand back the rights. "If you do this and that for different audiences," warns Hong Kong producer Nansun Shi, "you lose the whole raison d'etre of your cultural mark. There's a certain...