For many, the Weinstein brothers' inescapable awards-season carpet bombing was mere insult added to an even more grievous seasonal injury: moving Piranha 3DD from its original November 2011 release date to the notorious TBD associated with so many well-known Weinstein projects. What did you expect, though? Madonna/W.E. Golden Globe campaigns don't pay for themselves, right?
more »
While the latest chapter in the rapidly expanding mythology of Harvey Weinstein involves the mogul shooting down a pitch from President Obama ("I sent him an e-mail back saying he was the most overqualified book scout I've ever had"), I remain preoccupied with the saga surrounding Bully, the Weinstein Company doc still embroiled in a battle with the MPAA ratings board to overturn its R for strong language. The publicity clamor continued Wednesday with a young bully victim dropping off a petition with a reported 200,000 signatures to MPAA HQ and Ellen Degeneres discussing the "controversy" on her show. But it's what quietly came the day before that seems the most intriguing.
more »
Their five-time Oscar winner The Artist may have just experienced its most lucrative weekend at the box office to date, but newly installed Legionnaire of Honor Harvey Weinstein and his Weinstein Co. minions remain firmly focused today on the Great Bully Ratings Non-troversy of 2012. How do we know? To Twitter, where #BullyMovie is this morning's highest-ranking (promoted, ahem) trending topic.
more »
You've heard about Bully, right? The anti-bullying documentary featuring real video of real teenage bullies tormenting real peers, interspersed with experts and victims alike expounding on our ongoing bullying epidemic? Of course you have, because when The Weinstein Company wasn't shoving its 2012 Oscar crop down your throat, it was protesting way too much about a ratings "controversy" that would require youngsters under 17 to attend the doc with a parent or guardian. God forbid! Because the last thing we want is parents and teens watching and ideally discussing a film about bullying, right?
more »
Congratulations to Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin, whose film Undefeated lived up to its title at last night's Academy Awards by taking home the Best Documentary Feature Oscar. Exploring the intersection of class, race and a hard-luck high-school football team, the doc started earning fans a year ago at Sundance South by Southwest — including Harvey Weinstein, who acquired Undefeated on the spot and promptly fast-tracked it for 2012 awards glory. Mission accomplished. The only thing Undefeated didn't do? How about help get three unjustly convicted men — one condemned to die — out of prison?
more »
It's only taken a few years, but the success of director Daniel Espinosa's Safe House means that Harvey Weinstein is finally ready to let the filmmaker's Swedish-language hit Easy Money -- née Snabba Cash -- off his shelf on July 27. The distributor cited the eventual Stateside publication of the film's source novel (as opposed to Safe House's $83 million-and-counting domestic haul) as his motivation: “We love the movie, but we needed the book to be out here,” he told the LAT. Right. As always with Harvey, all release dates are subject to change and/or revocation at any time, so remember to mark your calendars in pencil. [LAT]
With its soapy survey of a Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe, the new NBC potboiler Smash is clinging to reasonably good ratings since launching last week. And now The Weinstein Company, never one to miss an opportunity, has discreetly hitched its double Oscar nominee My Week With Marilyn to Smash's own (alleged) Marilyn-fueled momentum.
more »
The underdog candidate for this year's Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, Undefeated is, fittingly, about an underdog sports team, a group of kids from an underfunded urban school for whom football provides some desperately needed structure as well as a possible route to a better life. There's good reason the Weinstein Company reportedly coughed up seven figures for distribution and remake rights to the film -- Undefeated is Friday Night Lights meets The Blind Side in nonfiction form, examining issues of class and race through the lens of its ragtag athletics program while also reinforcing American mythos of bootstrapping, hard work and community. Its triumphs are bittersweet, but they're irresistible.
more »
File under the ever-thickening berth labeled "Dirty Oscar-Season Tricks": No sooner did the sun rise on the Academy's final-ballot mailing day than word circulated about the author and publishers of The Reader suing The Weinstein Company for undercompensation. I know, I know -- you're shocked.
more »
Let's not belabor this: The Artist claimed Best Picture at Saturday's Producers Guild Awards, all but affirming its eventual Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. Other winners included The Adventures of Tintin in the animated category and Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest in docs. Congrats to all! Is it March yet?
more »
And you thought Jessica Chastain was having a busy year. Check out the resume of Juno Temple, the 22-year-old British actress whose early roles in such films as Notes on a Scandal and Atonement have given way to a 2011 comprising work on movies from The Dark Knight Rises to The Three Musketeers to this week's quirky indie dramedy Dirty Girl.
FILM NEWS 
