In the movie The Dark Knight, there is a hilarious exchange between Wayne Enterprises CEO Lucius Fox and a functionary who happened to learn Bruce Wayne’s alter-ego:
Functionary: “I want $10 million a year for the rest of my life.”
Fox: “Let me get this straight: You think that your client, one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world, is secretly a vigilante who spends his nights beating criminals to a pulp with his bare hands, and your plan is to blackmail this person? … Good luck.”
Here’s the scene:
I thought of that scene when I read Harvey “Leg Artillery” Weinstein’s boast yesterday on Howard Stern’s radio show.
“I shouldn’t say this, but I’ll tell it to you, Howard,” he said. “I’m going to make a movie with Meryl Streep, and we’re going to take this head-on. And they’re going to wish they weren’t alive after I’m done with them.”
The shock jock asked whether the film was going to be a documentary. Mr. Weinstein said no, that it would be a “big movie like a ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'”
The movie mogul said his vision was to scare people away from firearms.
Let me get this straight: You want to frighten away the NRA, one of the strongest associations in the U.S., which has over 5 million members who own guns, and your plan is to use a Meryl Streep film?