March 15, 2004
And Weinstein Wonders Why People Are Accusing Him of Racism ...
So, you're Miramax and you own the rights to an absolute masterwork of Asian cinema that goes by the title of Hero. This thing's so good that it netted itself a best foreign film Oscar nomination over the film that your company sunk all of its marketing money into. So what do you do? Do you ride that bit of awards news into a strong marketing campaign? Nope. Do you put out a trailer that shows people just how incredible the visuals in this film are? Nope. Do you ride the hell out of the star power of Jet Li and Zhang Ziyi - two of the most recognizable Asian stars in the Western world? Nope. How 'bout working the reputation of acclaimed art house director Zhang Yimou? Nope. Any sane company would have done all of these things, but not Miramax. Here's what they did: pledge 20 mil towards the production costs to secure the rights to the film, never bother to actually pay out their share, then sit on the film for ALMOST TWO YEARS and threaten lawsuits against anybody who imports the official Chinese DVDs which, by the way, released well over a year ago.
So what does it take to get Miramax to finally release a universally acclaimed film like this? A phone call from Quentin Tarantino, the only really bankable director in Miramax's stable and evidently the only one who even remotely understands or cares about Asian film in the whole damn place. If this was a European film it would've hit theaters in months regardless of quality - see Benigni's crapfest Pinocchio and the treatment (ie original cut and language perfectly well preserved on DVD there but never - ABSOLUTELY NEVER - on their Asian product) it received for proof - but because Hero's stars are all slanty eyed it sits on the shelf bloody well forever until the white knight rides in to save the day.
Good on Quentin. Bad on Weinstein. The film's now supposed to release in June. Read the article in Fangoria here.
Posted by John Campea at March 15, 2004 01:16 PM
Comments
Posted by: KungFuGuy at March 16, 2004 09:34 AM
MAn oh man oh man. I have been waiting to see this movie for years now and this wait is becoming unbearable. I dont have the dvd (by choice) because i want to see this movie first on the big screen and do not want to dilute it by
first seeing it on a smally piddly screen.
I was shocked and really suprised by the news that Tarantino has stuck his pimply geeky nose into this movie because i heard a rumor that it was his crapfest of a movie (Kill bill) that was holding up hero. (Being that Hero would have made
kill bill look even more trashy and just plain stupid had the two been released around the same time)
But hey as long as we get to see the movie some time soon i wont mind even if its the most over-rated out of touch movie maker getting it done.
Ps...Didnt i read on this very board that HERO would be released on the same day as Kill bill 2 (yuck!!)
Posted by: TheRedOne at March 16, 2004 02:47 PM
The scheduling conflict had nothing to do with Tarantino ... He wanted Kill Bill to come out as one big film with an intermission, Miramax said no and split it in two. Original plan was to release Part Two in February but Miramax pushed it back so they could premiere it at Cannes and the new date fell onto Hero's date. They didn't want to have two sword films opening at the same time for fear that it would dilute the audience so the pushed Hero back again. The problems with Hero are all about the Weinsteins ...
Posted by: Bubba at March 16, 2004 03:16 PM
Word is this has now been pushed back to August, but I'm actually okay with this one ... The June date conflicted with Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi (which still hasn't arrived ... bad mailman! bad!) and along with the later date Miramax is moving it up from a three city limited run to a full wide release ...
Posted by: Bubba at March 20, 2004 02:10 AM
Miramax/Disney racism is infuriating the more you think about it, but if you don't think about it you're capitulating to it. This situation with Miramax must stop. Really. I for one really want western audiences to get a glimpse of the feeling of classical asian movies without it being edited, cut and transformed into "accessible" dumbed-down disasters which will get the usual reviews of "chock-socky fun for the whole family". I'm actually glad Tarantino phoned Miramax, albeit belatedly. He's one of the few who can kick Miramax in the ass for being blatantly racist.
Posted by: Carl at April 16, 2004 07:13 PM
I'm not a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, but God bless him. Without his intervention, Miramax would've shelved Hero indefinitely.
Posted by: Arnold at April 23, 2005 10:27 PM
Mr. Tarantino, where were you 13 months ago?!!?
My piddly sized television [thanks Bubba] simply cannot do it justice. I need to see it on a bigger screen.
I wonder... my church has a projector in the sanctuary. Do I dare? Volcano High has already made an appearance there... and I am thinking about Shaolin Soccer [another Miram-AXE property I might add] will have a viewing this Spring at our sr high lock-in... heh heh.