Miramax's Weinsteins Buy Controversial Film

By Bob Tourtellotte

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Moviemakers Bob and Harvey Weinstein, who back Oscar-winning films like "Life Is Beautiful," are at it again -- buying a movie deemed too hot for big time Hollywood studios to handle.

The Weinstein brothers Wednesday said they will form a new company to acquire the rights to a religious satire called "Dogma," by 28-year-old director Kevin Smith, whose credits include the low-budget "Chasing Amy."

The unfinished film has already met with protests from Roman Catholics, prompting the Weinstein brothers -- co-heads of Miramax -- to arrange for the new company to buy the rights to the movie from Miramax to avoid embarrassing its parent Walt Disney Co. .

"We feel that this action is the best to remain true to the film and to our corporate parent," the Weinsteins said in a joint statement.

Harvey Weinstein told the Los Angeles Times that Disney is "too vulnerable" to be involved in making films like "Dogma."

"They make family movies and a protest could hurt them unnecessarily," he said. "We said, if this is a corporate problem for Burbank (Disney's home), let's solve it for them."

The Weinsteins and their new company will now set about finding an independent distributor for the movie.

The movie tells of two renegade angels, played by Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, who believe Catholic church laws are fallible and who set about exploiting a legal loophole as a way to re-enter heaven. The original screenplay can be found on director Smith's Internet site at www.viewaskew.com.

The script includes a foul-mouthed "13th Apostle" named Rufus (played by comedian Chris Rock), and a Catholic woman (played by Linda Fiorentino) who works at an Illinois abortion clinic.

Smith calls the movie "a fantastical journey about a lone hero joined by a band of misfits marching on to a common goal to save humanity" that "is in no way blasphemous or worthy of the mild controversy that seems to be brewing around it."

The Weinsteins are no strangers to controversy.

Just this past year, they scooped up U.S. distribution rights for Italian actor/director Roberto Benigni's "Life Is Beautiful."

That movie met with protests for its tale of a man's attempt to hide the horrors of Nazi death camps from his son by treating their imprisonment as a game.

In 1995, Miramax released "Priest," which also outraged Catholic groups and sparked calls for boycotts against Disney products because of its portrayal of a Catholic priest who was having a homosexual affair.

That same year, the Weinsteins formed a company called Shining Excalibur to make "Kids" an NC-17 rated movie about a group of New York City youth who use drugs and practice unsafe sex. Under the Disney banner, Miramax is unable to release a movie that has been rated NC-17.

"As per usual, Bob and Harvey are the only ones willing to stick by us or back our goofy little flicks," Smith said in a statement.