HARVEY WEINSTEIN - BESSON AND WEINSTEIN BATTLE OVER ARTHUR MOVIE

Producer HARVEY WEINSTEIN has hit back at LUC BESSON, branding him a "has-been", after the French director accused him of ruining his fantasy movie ARTHUR AND THE INVISIBLES. The Fifth Element filmmaker was disappointment with the U.S. performance of the movie - which he wrote and directed - in an interview with SuicideGirls.com. Besson said, "I've worked in the movie business for 30 years now. (The Weinstein Company) was the worst I have worked with in my entire life, in any country. "Why the critics didn't like Arthur was because they changed so much of the film and tried to pretend the film was American. The critics aren't stupid. They watched the film, they vaguely smell American but they can feel the film is forced for an American audience." Weinstein brought in Madonna, Snoop Dogg and Robert De Niro to provide the voiceovers for the U.S. version, replacing the original French actors who appeared in the Gallic version. In response, Weinstein tells the New York Daily News, "He's out of his mind. He's a has-been."