Jean-Pierre Jeunet Blames Harvey Weinstein For 'Amelie' Not Winning Oscars, Says He Wants To Cut 'Spivet'

Last month, Harvey Weinstein spent some time explaining his positions regarding notorious Cannes opening film disaster "Grace Of Monaco" and the cult favorite "Snowpiercer" from director Bong Joon-ho. Both films’ directors spoke out against Weinstein’s insistence on making changes to their films (and as both movies illustrate, such changes can be good or very, very bad). Now another filmmaker claims Weinstein is meddling with his vision.

Taking to his blog, Jean-Pierre Jeunet reveals that Weinstein wants to cut his latest film "The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet," and he’s not happy about. Here’s some of what he had to say:

When Harvey Weinstein signed TS Spivet for the United States, he had seen the finished film. And Gaumont had made it clear that since I had the final cut, I would not change even the smallest detail. A fact that didn’t stop him from trying to bully his way into redoing the film in his own way. As he always does with films….

….Weinstein is like a gallery owner that says to a painter: “Americans don’t like green, so I’ll ask the framer to use blue” … Weinstein is actually all about power. Like a dog marking a tree, he MUST change all the movies he buys.

Additionally, Jeunet also told THR recently "if the film is not yet released in the U.S.A., it’s only because Harvey Weinstein bought it, and of course Mr. Weinstein wants to re-edit it. Luckily, I have the final cut because I’m French and it’s a French and Canada co-production. … but he put the pressure, for a question of power, to cut it. Maybe Harvey Weinstein won’t ever release the film."

This isn’t the first time Jeunet has faced Harvey Scissorhands. He claims Weinstein wanted to make edits on 1991’s "Delicatessen," but most notably, he blames him for "Amelie" not winning any of its five Oscar nominations (including Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Film) in 2002. Why? Because Weinstein’s reputation in Hollywood got in the way.

We had five Oscar nominations. But we were out of luck. That was the year that the Academy, tired of Weinstein’s vote-collecting “abuse”, decided to boycott his films. “We will not vote for Amélie”, wrote the American industry magazines. Whoopy [sic] Goldberg, president of the ceremony, spent the entire ceremony making fun of Weinstein. The result being, out of 19 nominations, he won only one Oscar.

For their part, the Weinstein Company told the Hollywood Reporter that ‘Spivet’ will be released in an unedited from this spring. "We think ‘T.S. Spivet’ is a beautiful, artistic film and a great family-friendly film. We did have some concerns over some of the scenes that, while they may be family-friendly in France, may not be seen that way in the U.S. But when Jean-Pierre and the producer said they wanted to leave those scenes in, we were 100 percent fine," said a studio statement. "We worked with Jean-Pierre on ‘Amelie’ and have nothing but complete respect for his talent and artistic vision, and look forward to working with him on this film."

All that said, there is no release date set and no U.S. trailer for the picture either. Meanwhile, Jeunet isn’t waiting around to see what happens. He’s moving ahead with "erotic" Amazon series "Casanova," which he can rest assured will not involve Harvey Weinstein.