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November 08, 2005

WEINSTEINS BUYING WEIRD MOVIES

Not Bob and Harvey WeinsteinThe Weinstein Company is buying Asian movies at AFM, but what they're buying makes no sense.

Having previously declared INFERNAL AFFAIRS the pinnacle of Chinese cinema, Harvey has now picked up INFERNAL AFFAIRS 2 and 3 (Miramax still owns INFERNAL AFFAIRS 1, and never exercised its option to pick up the sequels) but hasn't declared any plans for the films. The sequels don't come with remake rights either, since Warner Brothers picked those up for THE DEPARTED, Martin Scorsese's INFERNAL AFFAIRS remake that is coming out sometime in the next 6 months.

Continuing a weird pattern of purchases (mostly from Media Asia), the Weinsteins then bought A CHINESE ODYSSEY 1 and 2, Stephen Chow's 1995 two-part "Journey to the West" films. These are great movies for Chow fans, but incomprehensible to people who don't already like Chow and who don't have a familiarity with "Journey to the West". I'm a huge Chow fan, and I didn't even make it through these two when I first watched them.

Is there a method to the madness, or is this just two guys grabbing whatever's on the table? Only time will tell if they're crazy, or crazy like a fox!

November 8, 2005 at 12:49 PM in News | Permalink

Comments

A CHINESE ODYSSEY: what's there not to like?

note to the weinstein bros: next time you do a test screening you HAVE to invite me. let there be at least one good thing coming out of your madness.... or something like that.

Posted by: su-su | Nov 9, 2005 8:58:41 AM

On the INFERNAL AFFAIRS pick-ups, might they be planning to cash in on the release of THE DEPARTED by putting out all three IA films in a DVD box set? "The inspiration for...", that sort of thing?

Posted by: Peter | Nov 9, 2005 9:52:45 AM

That's possible, but since they don't have the rights to INFERNAL AFFAIRS (which is still at Miramax) that might be kind of tough to pull off. Although maybe the two companies will figure it out, it just seems difficult to me.

Posted by: Grady Hendrix | Nov 9, 2005 10:20:06 AM

that would be great; at least IA would FINALLY get a little bit of credit.

i wonder if they'll acknowledge IA in the Departed DVD at least

Posted by: quadshock | Nov 10, 2005 2:14:00 AM

at the very least chinese odyssey will have subs that don't hurt my brain.
i hope.

Posted by: rob | Nov 10, 2005 9:25:20 PM

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