BBC orders Harvey Weinstein feature documentary
A closer look at Hollywood's dark underbelly
British public broadcaster BBC has ordered a feature-length documentary on Harvey Weinstein's rise and fall, including interviews with “the many actresses who have been brave enough to tell their stories” sexual harassment and assault scandal, as well as producers, directors, actors, agents, lawyers, journalists and others.
The 90-minute film, directed by Ursula MacFarlane (“Charlie Hebdo: Three Days that Shook Paris”), has the working title “Weinstein” and will air on BBC Two, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Production company Lightbox and Emmy Award winner Jonathan Chinn said it wants the documentary to tell “the definitive story of Weinstein's career, fall from grace and Hollywood's culture of abuse.”
Through the prism of Weinstein's career and the sexual harassment and assault scandal, the film will also look at the history of Hollywood and “delve into the complex mix of money, power, exploitation and abuse that developed with the emergence of the studio system in the 1930s” to uncover “the culture of fear and abuse that permeates Hollywood.”
Tom McDonald, head of commissioning, natural history and specialist factual at the BBC, said that the project “promises to be the definitive take on the Weinstein scandal.”
The BBC didn't immediately set an air date, but the expectation is for the documentary to be broadcast in Britain some time in 2018.
The Weinstein scandal, which was exposed by early October reports published in The New York Times and The New Yorker, opened the floodgates for women, and men, to come forward and share their stories of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault. Salma Hayek recently added her name to the list of 80-plus accusers who have spoken out against the disgraced mogul.
Source: THR