SALON

Wednesday, Jan 30, 2013 5:05 PM UTC

Harvey Weinstein: I screwed up on “The Master” and “Django”

In an interview, the longtime Oscar maven concedes that he doesn't always have the winning strategy

By

Topics: Harvey Weinstein, The Master, django unchained, Silver Linings Playbook, 2013 Awards, 2013 Awards Season, 2013 oscars, Quentin Tarantino, entertainment news, Movies, Film, cinema,

Harvey Weinstein: I screwed up on (Credit: AP/Andy Kropa)

Harvey Weinstein doesn’t need to offer recriminations. The Weinstein Co. producer, whose films have won the last two best picture Oscars and may go on to win a third if “Silver Linings Playbook” goes the distance, has his eye on the rare dark spots in his portfolio in a recent interview with Deadline.

While “Django Unchained,” for instance, received an Oscar nomination for best picture, Weinstein takes the fall for Quentin Tarantino’s absence in the best director category. “We tried to show it to people in theaters, not on DVD,” he said, noting that the film’s “screeners” sent to voters went out later than is typical. “It’s an epic movie and that man put his whole life and heart into this. It’s his most important movie, his most important subject matter, and the idea of DVDs stopped me cold. And I stopped them. I wouldn’t do it.” Ah, well!

Weinstein’s interview only points out the importance of lavishing free DVDs on a voting body that’s resistant to go to movie theaters; his insistence on making the film a big-screen experience cost the film Oscar support — or, at least, that’s his ex post facto explanation. No interview with Weinstein can go without a little self-appreciation: The studio head claims that he encouraged Tarantino to write the nonexistent New Yorker piece that became the movie. If you liked “Django,” thank the visionary behind it, who did more than just put up money!

Weinstein further notes that he regrets that the P.T. Anderson film “The Master” will lose money, and notes that he should have been “a devil’s advocate instead of a cheerleader” — meaning he ought to have taken a firmer hand in controlling the cut and marketing of the movie. The interview’s a great glimpse into the mind of a Hollywood player — for whom every misstep is easily explained away and used as ammunition for future consolidation of power.

Daniel D'Addario is a staff reporter for Salon's entertainment section. Follow him on Twitter @DPD_ More Daniel D'Addario.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 1 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations