Harvey Weinstein stole the concepts for movies from his family, including the Scary Movie series, and Marlon Wayans said he should have fought him for it, but the acclaimed producer’s final fall seemed like “god’s revenge.” In 2000, Wayans and his brother Shawn wrote the comedy-horror film Scary Movie, helmed by their brother Keenan and produced by Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax. Four further movies were based on the movie’s plot.
In an interview with Club Shay Shay, Wayans claimed that Miramax had given his family a “crappy” deal for the initial movie, which ultimately caused their connection to fall apart as the sequels developed. By the time of Scary Movie 3, Miramax had appointed the Zucker brothers as the film’s directors, drawing inspiration from the Wayans brothers. Wayans claimed that they were unaware that the corporation had taken this action.
“We go on, made our money. White Chicks made another classic. Little Man made another classic. We do our thing,” Wayans stated but added that Weinstein and his business ought to have been sued for copying their concepts. According to Wayans, the Scary Movies 4 and 5, which were not produced with his input, did the worst in the franchise.
You can’t do Wayans shit without the Wayans,” he said. “You can try, but eventually you’re gonna lose a lot of money because what we do is special. We have 200 years of comedy between me, Shawn and Keenan. Damon, Kim. We have a lot of years of excellence of what we do. You can’t just put anybody on them.”
Wayans added that it felt like “God’s revenge” because Harvey Weinstein’s name perished eventually after being found guilty in 2020 of multiple accusations of rape and sexual assault, which helped spark the #MeToo movement. “Sometimes you ain’t gotta do nothing because God’s gonna do it all — God’s revenge,” Wayans said. “When God come for you, you gotta trust God. You don’t retaliate, vengeance is mine. They took Miramax, his company…. Then they had the Weinstein Co. and then all this stuff started going down with the rape allegations and they took that company, too.”