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• The directors: Rankin Jan 23 2007

The directors: Franc Roddam on Harvey Weinstein

In our continuing series of articles in collaboration with Direct, the magazine of the Directors Guild of Great Britain guest edited by filmmaker Don Boyd, Franc Roddam, the director of ’Quadrophenia‘, recalls working with Harvey Weinstein on his 1992 film ’K2‘

‘Must call Harvey…’
‘Fuck…’
‘I must call Harvey.’
‘No. Hang on. Better call my editor first.’

It’s the early ’90s, I’m stuck in a phone box on the wrong side of the Hollywood Hills. I’ve just rescued a friend of mine who is handcuffed to a wall in some grubby San Fernando Valley hospital, suffering from a schizophrenic incident.

‘Fuck it, I’d better call Harvey… I’ll call the editor first.’

I’d walked away from the film ‘K2’ on the advice of friends and family ten months into the fifth stage of production, and eight months after it had a two-minute standing ovation at Cannes. There used to be three stages of production – pre-production, production and post-production. But we all know there’s really five: you have to add pre-pre-production – getting someone to give you the money – which can take anything from seven months to seven years. Then there’s post-post-production when they preview, argue and re-cut your film, and, in this particular case, try to turn it into something it was never intended to be.

Anyway, ten months of unpaid work, cutting and re-cutting, watching my film get worse and worse, was destroying my bank balance and breaking my heart. I walked away leaving it to the distributor to do whatever he liked. I’d never done this before, but fuck it – it was wrecking my life. Now, one month later, from some gut feeling, I’m calling my editor in England from a call box.

‘What have they done?’
Sean Barton, my editor, was a good friend. I gave him his first feature film job; we were close.
‘What have they done… What?!?’
‘…they can’t do that, that’s fucking ludicrous… I’m going to call Harvey.’