Could Quentin Tarantino be setting up a documentary on The Weinstein Company and Miramax founder, Harvey Weinstein?
According to a profile on filmmaker Barry Avrich’s own attempts to document Weinstein in the NY Times, Tarantino is reportedly considering a project that would chronicle Weinstein’s professional life from his work as a “concert promoter in Buffalo, through the heyday of Miramax, which released hits like ‘Pulp Fiction’ and ‘Shakespeare in Love,’ and beyond.”
“The Last Mogul” director Avrich has reportedly been planning “a powerful, uncensored account of a brilliant, feared, charming and yet loathsome character” that would capture the “passion, character and old Hollywood style” that the Weinstein brothers have brought to their film ventures. However, in seeking approval from Weinstein himself, Avrich was denied permission on account of the potential, competing Tarantino documentary.
Could Weinstein just be using Tarantino as a way to deter Avrich from his project but? Possibly, Tarantino’s publicist, Paula Woods, has also added the director was “unofficially kicking around the idea” but bear in mind it’s just one in a stable that currently includes a 1930s gangster picture, a Spaghetti Western, a southern KKK revenge tale, a John Brown slavery picture, an adaptation of some Len Deighton British spy novels and “Kill Bill 3.”
Either way, it’s not going to stop Avrich who is fighting on despite admitting “there are those that say making a documentary film on Harvey Weinstein is career suicide or, in fact, personally dangerous” with warnings that “Harvey will never allow the film to get distribution.” Tentatively and aptly titled “Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project,” the doc is being backed by Canadian television networks, the Movie Network and Movie Central with Avrich hoping to complete the project in the next year on a budget of $1 million dollars before hitting the festival circuit in search of a distribution deal.
It remains to be seen if Tarantino’s documentary will come to fruition — it’d be much a more biased film but with open doors to the Weinstein Company and Miramax, Tarantino’s doc would probably provide much more insight into the independent film pioneer’s legacy.
