New Movie By Producer Harvey Weinstein Generates Buzz
O'BRIEN: Welcome back to STARTING POINT. Oscar-winning producer and movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is a man behind several movies that scored big at the box office and at awards shows, "The King's Speech," "The Artist," best picture Oscars the last two years in a row. Now he is hoping for another big hit with the movie "The Intouchables." It's about an unlikely friendship between a quadriplegic millionaire and his street smart ex-con caretaker. And by the way, that's a comedy. Oh, and by the way, it's in French. Listen.</s>O'BRIEN: This movie looks so good. And that man is so handsome. The movie has already broken records in its native France. Harvey Weinstein is joining us, cofounder of the Weinstein company. Nice to have you.</s>HARVEY WEINSTEIN, CO-FOUNDER, WEINSTEIN COMPANY: Nice to see you.</s>O'BRIEN: Do you think this is going to be a blockbuster? Any expectation of that?</s>WEINSTEIN: Right now in only 90 theaters, we've broken the record for this year's biggest foreign language film, which is the Academy Award Winner "The Separation". We're going after "Dragon Tattoo" next and we're going one after another. I'm actually going to go to France and ask all the people in France who saw the movie to call somebody in America so we can start breaking these records. Because I think in this time, you know, to see a movie that's a true story, that's transformational, that's so much fun, and you watch the relationship between these two unlikely people. You know, these are the people you would never, ever imagine to have a friendship. And they transform each other. They jump out of airplanes. They race cars. They chase girls. I mean if I ever needed a caretaker, this is the prescription for health.</s>O'BRIEN: He's gone on to become a famous actor. You can't have him anymore.</s>WEINSTEIN: Well, he is very famous.</s>O'BRIEN: It seems like it's the summer though sometimes of the big blockbuster. I mean if you name all of the movies that are making big, big bucks, it's you know, you know the bold-faced name movies.</s>WEINSTEIN: But you know what this movie around the world, I mean we released in our French company and our French company released it, it is doing blockbuster business. So everywhere it goes, it starts slow. And then people discover it and because it's not a blockbuster, but it's a blockbuster in spirit. People have seen it, I mean anybody who's seen this movie will tell you, it's so much fun, and it's transformational.</s>HOOVER: And it's a happy movie, right?</s>WEINSTEIN: Really happy movie. And you feel good.</s>HOOVER: So you go to the movies there's so much bad stuff going on in the world. And you really want to wrap for two hours and you come away and it makes you feel good.</s>WEINSTEIN: And what's amazing these two actors in the movie you know the actors jump out of an airplane. And, you know, they saved it for the last day because the two guys in real life, I mean, this guy was, you know, crippled and the other guy had never jumped out of an airplane. And they went over the Swiss Alps and threw themselves out of an airplane. So on the last day of shooting the actors looked (inaudible) were going to do it and we're just there for the close ups and these two directors threw them out of the airplane. So the look of terror on their face is I can tell you is dead real.</s>LIZZA: How did it start, how did you get the script and how did you decide to do this? It seems like if someone -- you the reputation of the movie like this would be oh Hollywood would never be interested in something like this. So how did you get it off the ground?</s>WEINSTEIN: Well my movie.</s>CAIN: Because he's Harvey Weinstein. I mean that's the answer.</s>WEINSTEIN: Well, I mean, I think people know that I have done movies like cinema parodies so where "Life is Beautiful" or "Amelie" you know what I mean. And we've had great success, you know, with foreign language movies and different kind of movies. And as I said last year we won the Oscar for "The Artist" and that had no, you know what I mean, you know no dialogue, no sound. So this is a step up.</s>O'BRIEN: I was going to say what makes your successful because if you look at other people's assessment of you, I think Meryl Streep called you God.</s>WEINSTEIN: She was kidding.</s>O'BRIEN: And the Alec Baldwin -- Alec Baldwin -- Alec Baldwin called you something unprintable that I cannot say on</s>TV. WEINSTEIN: Yes, yes.</s>O'BRIEN: What do you think is the secret to like reading a script and saying, this has no dialogue at all, and yet I think it's going to be a winner?</s>WEINSTEIN: Well, I think you know you could actually tell with "The Artist" script that it was amazing and touching. And I think the same thing is true of this. You know this was a French company who is making the movie, one of our guys intercepted it. You read this story and you realize that it's true, and you say, this is unbelievable and so true and so funny. And these two directors direct comedies in France that are wildly successful. This is, you know, a terrific movie. And I wouldn't go out and promote it myself. As for Alec Baldwin, let's give you the other side. Meryl called me God. And I've said this before the minute she called me God, I had to do an interview on another network at 4:00 in the morning. And Madonna called me the Punisher. She called me God. And the French guys, when they won for "The Artist," call me "Le Boss". So here is the French guys on "The Artist" they don't show up at 4:00 in the morning. They are supposed to be there. They are partying, dancing on tables, drinking champagne and I call them and they go, come on, guys. We promised this early morning show we would all stay up after we won the award and we would be there. They go, we're French. We don't care. So, you know, so what? Let them gone so it's me and the dog. Me and Uggy. So here is God, the Punisher, and the boss. I'm sitting with Uggy and Uggy decides to have a bowel movement during my interview. So and I realize quickly that my -- you know my 24 hours of fame is up. I mean, as I'm doing this interview. As for Alec Baldwin, I was busy. I couldn't do an interview in Cannes. He wanted me to do an interview for the movie that he is making, and I think he got angry with me.</s>O'BRIEN: He surely he did.</s>WEINSTEIN: Just -- just to handle it you know I mean, but -- but you know, one thing that I did. I refused to talk to him or do anything until he apologized. So he came over and gave me a written apology at a fundraiser, at a charity event that he was doing. He is a good guy. He loses his temper all the time. But he's a good guy. Trust me, I know what losing my temper is like.</s>O'BRIEN: Really? Really? Yes, we've heard about that a little. Famous last words.</s>WEINSTEIN: I'm good at that too.</s>O'BRIEN: Let's talk about fundraisers. Because you've got one coming up.</s>WEINSTEIN: Yes.</s>O'BRIEN: And it's not cheap. We -- we are able to cobbled together $8 to go but I guess that's $35,000 short.</s>WEINSTEIN: You're in.</s>O'BRIEN: So it's $35,000 plus a plate for this.</s>WEINSTEIN: Yes.</s>O'BRIEN: How much money are you expecting to raise -- you're fundraising for Obama?</s>WEINSTEIN: $2 million. Yes and I think it will be $2 million and it's just in the early stages. And it's funny. You watch some of the people, you know, for the Republicans, for Mitt Romney, write checks for, you know, one of these -- the Koch Brothers I think they're going to raise $400 million on PACs. I mean, we are so come from behind compared to these incredibly wealthy people who are doing it. But if you're really --</s>O'BRIEN: Says the incredibly wealthy --</s>WEINSTEIN: No, no. No. No, no, no there is no Democrat in the Koch league of wealth. You know what I mean? But I think the --</s>CAIN: I think you just offended George Soros.</s>WEINSTEIN: You know what? You're right. I'll probably worry about this --</s>O'BRIEN: And talking about the Koch Brothers, not Coca-Cola.</s>WEINSTEIN: But I think the situation is you know it's an investment. I think for the people who can afford it, it's an investment in America. We don't want to go back to the economy that the President inherited, you know, in '08. The President came into office he inherited that economy. He did not make that economy. And I think if the other guys get into office, they are going to do the same old terrible politics, they're going to deregulate the banks. The banks will be -- you know, it's not that the banks institutionally are greedy. It's that there is always one bad guy or two bad apples. And if there aren't any rules, these guys will take advantage and put the country in worse shape than it is.</s>O'BRIEN: We are out of time. But the movie is called "The Intouchables". It looks really terrific. Thank you for coming and to talk to us about it. We appreciate it.</s>WEINSTEIN: My pleasure Soledad. Thank you.</s>O'BRIEN: We've got to take a short break. We're back in just a moment.</s>WEINSTEIN: Thank you guys.</s>O'BRIEN: You bet. Nice to have you. Thank you.