by Ariana Pekary, producer
Harvey Weinstein and his brother Bob have been very successful producing independent-minded films. They have produced each of Quentin Tarantino’s movies, and other “nouveau classics” (as Bob calls them) such as The Kings Speech, The English Patient, Shakespeare in Love and Frida.
He stopped by the studio when he was in Washington last week for a “creativity conference” to chat about one of their new releases, Kon-Tiki, and dish about the film industry in general. In the middle of a discussion about success and violence in film, he was ready with a philosophical answer to Bob’s question:
Bob: Do you have a code of ethics? I mean, you must be faced with some very tough decisions.
Weinstein: The code of ethics that I have is the same code that I had at Miramax. It’s a Kurt Vonnegut quote and it says “good can triumph over evil if the angels are as organized as the mafia.”
Weinstein’s level of self-awareness and candor likely has contributed to his achievements in the movie business. Watch a trailer for the latest release here. Weinstein says he likes this film because Thor Heyerdahl is so inspirational — and that’s something we all could use these days.