HARVEY WEINSTEIN - STAR WARS FANS CALL FOR SUPERHERO MOVIE BOYCOTT

An announcement by The Weinstein Co. that it now plans to release two versions of its comedy Fanboys -- one featuring the original cut; the other the cut ordered by Harvey Weinstein -- has failed to mollify supporters of the original version, who are threatening to boycott and picket the Weinstein's Superhero Movie, which opens on Friday. "This [the Weinstein announcement] is more about avoiding picket lines at Superhero than it was about making a decision about the release of our movie," Kevin Mann, one of the producers, told the Hollywood Reporter. The movie concerns a group of Star Wars fans who break into George Lucas's studios to see an advance screening of The Phantom Menace. In the original version, one of the fans is battling cancer. In the revised one, references to cancer have been removed. "The original reason we wanted to get involved with this script was because it was a comedy with heart," Mann told the trade paper. "In my opinion, when the cancer was taken out, the heart went with it." On their website, http://committed.to/stopdarthweinstein, fans who had seen the rough cut of the movie and/or clips at Star Wars conventions, vowed that their protest "will continue until the Weinstein Co. announces that they are returning control of Fanboys to the Star Wars fans who made it, releasing the original version in theaters and doing away with their anti-fan version of the film altogether."

25/03/2008