Harvey Weinstein had ‘unhealthy obsession’ with final film The Current War, claims director
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon, the director of Harvey Weinstein’s last film The Current War, has claimed the disgraced movie mogul had an “obsession” with the movie “that was not healthy”.
Gomez-Rejon is releasing a new version of the film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, entitled The Current War: Director’s Cut, after he was unhappy with Weinstein's vision of the project which premiered to unfavourable reviews at the Toronto Film Festival in 2017.
Reflecting on the original release, Gomez-Rejon has suggested the mounting sexual assault allegations and investigation into Weinstein meant The Current War became a “distraction” for the producer.
“The more you realise what was going on behind the scenes at the time that I was trying to finish the movie, the more you get an idea of why [The Weinstein Company] was so obsessed with this film,” he told Deadline.
“Clearly, there was a lot of stuff happening and I became a distraction or obsession that was not healthy. You get a sense of why my film was being so tortured… maybe he knew it was going to be his last film, I don’t know.”
Gomez-Rejon added that the situation “was f***ed up, even within the world of The Weinstein Company”.
He said within Weinstein’s “inner circle” he was “getting notes from LA, New York, and London”.
“It just wouldn’t stop,” he said. “Obsessing over decibels and ADR to the point that it just became obsessive, like being told that one word or other just had to be in there. It got to where it didn’t make any sense even to the people in the studio, but there was no way of stopping it.”
The Current War, which was was originally a Weinstein Company property, premiered at TIFF just weeks before a wave of sexual harassment and abuse accusations against co-founder Weinstein derailed the studio.
The film’s future was in limbo but nearly two years later, this July, Weinstein’s cut had its theatrical release.
Weinstein has denied all allegations of sexual misconduct and non-consensual sex.
Gomez-Rejon’s new version of the film will premiere in US cinemas on 25 October.
