Tarantino's Long-Awaited WWII Flick to Be Produced by Weinstein?

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By Gillian Reagan

July 9, 2008 | 11:29 a.m.

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Might we spot Harvey Weinstein picking up loose change off New York city streets soon? The man is on the financial outs, according to Nikki Finke on her blog Deadline Hollywood Daily. The media mensch thinks the rumors are true about The Weinstein Company's recent money troubles, since news broke about Harvey producing (not financially backing) Quentin Tarantino's movie Inglorious Bastards.

The movie, a World War II "Spaghetti Western," has been in the works since 2001 (originally with Miramax). But Ms. Finke said the script has been presented to four other studios, "Universal, Warner Bros, Paramount (all yesterday) and Sony (today)"

She writes:

This certainly adds fuel to those rumors that The Weinstein Co is having movie money woes. After all, one of the ways that The Weinstein Co attracted investors was by hyping its creative connection to the Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill 1 & 2 writer/director who has long made a lot of money for a lot of people. But now only Harv, and not his investors, could potentially profit from the connection? Unreal. And let's not forget that The Weinstein Co produced and financed Quentin's last pic Grindhouse/Death Proof that tanked at the box office because of Weinstein's own admission that he erred in releasing it in the U.S. market as half of a too-long 3-hour, 12-minute double-feature. (UPDATE: QT and Harvey Weinstein lunched very visibly at Ago on Melrose today. Just in case anyone thought there was a rift ...)