The bottom line, the Wall Street Journal adds, is that Weinstein needs a string of hits like Basterds — or $50 million in new money. The latter could be tough given another thing the Journal is reporting: that Weinstein failed to pay back a $75 million bridge loan earlier this year and is just piling up interest on the money. Basterds has racked up an impressive $111 million at the box office but, as noted here previously, it isn't saving Weinstein's ass because all the proceeds have to be split with co-producer Universal Pictures.

Weinstein's hopes for rescue when the big budget, Oscar-bait musical Nine opens this year appear to be diminishing with the rumor mill churning with word of a troubled post-production.

Weinstein's best hope for salvation is to dig deep down, past where his soul would be, and grab hold of that internal, obnoxious genius that empowers him to turn decent movies into great films. It would appear that digging process has already begun.

The movie cost $65 million, with another $35 mil for marketing. The Weinsteins were god damned determined to market the hell out of this! And that's great and all. But the WSJ explains the problem:

The company co-owns the $65 million film with Universal Pictures, so it will only reap half the profits — a symptom of the studio's financial troubles and the reason that even a hit like "Inglourious Basterds" may not be enough to save them.

Oh Harvey. Next time keep all of the Tarantino flick and sell off half of Miss Potter.

Last month the MPAA banned the movie's poster for being too raunchy. That was a huge red flag. The company responded by thumbing its nose with a cute little riff on the controversy, and continued on its merry way, marketing-wise.

But ads for the film were still getting banned across the country. Now it seems to be sinking in that the very title of the movie could prevent it from being properly marketed and advertised, dooming it to box office failure:

The public outcry has left the film's director and distributor flabbergasted. "I can't believe this is happening in the 21st century," says Mr. Smith. "When was the last time you saw a porno with the word porno in the title?"

"Anyone who takes the title seriously is missing the comedic aspect of the movie," says Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman of Weinstein Co.

"This is the one time I don't want controversy. This is a big, broad, fun Seth Rogen comedy," he says. "Hopefully people will see the movie for what it really is."

Do we detect a touch of nervousness in Harvey's quotes? As dumb as American puritanism is, you'd think that a company in Weinstein Co.'s position would go out of its way to make sure that a promising film actually succeeds financially. If Zack And Miri tanks because of a careless title... well, let's just hope it doesn't. For Harvey's sake!

Weinstein, who claims he has good relations with the Chinese government, has gone to Hong Kong, Vietnam, Malaysia and Thailand, which is where he decided to do the bulk of the filming, after 35 days of shooting interiors in Britain.

Producer Mike Medavoy, who spent the first seven years of his life in Shanghai, said, "We have the greatest respect for China, and Shanghai will look to capture and celebrate this great country."

Weinstein and company can't afford bad relations with China, having raised $285 million dedicated to making movies in Asia starring local actors.

Our thoughts exactly, although the Jet Li/Jackie Chan kung-fu fantasy The Forbidden Kingdom isn't the kind of sexy, vaguely political American imposition the Chinese have in mind when evicting Harvey and Co. In any case, we suspect Harvey was shocked to arrive ready for diplomacy only to find Chinese culture minister Sun Jiazheng decked out in a STOP DARTH WEINSTEIN T-shirt given to him by an earlier, unidentified American visitor, who apparently punked him into believing it said WELCOME WEINSTEIN COMPANY. Those Fanboys loyalists — always thinking two steps ahead.

• Weinstein's Asian Persuasion [NYP]

This is clearly a vain attempt by the Weinstein Company to avert Star Wars fans' impending boycott of all of their films. Well, guess what? It's not going to work, Darth Weinstein!

There was never any doubt that you would release both versions of the movie on DVD — probably months apart, so as to leech as much money from Star Wars fans as possible! ...

There is only ONE VERSION OF FANBOYS - THE ONE THAT WAS MADE BY STAR WARS FANS! ... If you release your mutilated anti-fan version of FANBOYS in ANY FORM, you can look forward to a lifetime boycott of your studio by every Star Wars fan on the planet.

As such, the Fanboys supporters are sticking to their picket plans for this weekend, with sizable protests scheduled in both New York and Los Angeles. Knowing what we know about Harvey, though, we expect this to be all the compromise these guys are going to get. Moreover, where the hell are all the Wong Kar-wai fans to protest Harvey's cut of the long-delayed Norah Jones / Jude Law / Natalie Portman road flick My Blueberry Nights, finally opening April 4 with an ugly, sludgy sheen added in edit bays sequestered deep inside the Weinstein Death Star. Even Roosevelt and Stalin had the common sense to ally against the Axis 65 years ago; with art-house romantics and and sci-fi geeks on the same page, we're confident Harvey Scissorhands wouldn't have a prayer.

• Geeks Get Their Movie... Kinda [The Hot Blog]

• DARTH WEINSTEIN MAKES A DESPERATE LAST-MINUTE ATTEMPT... [Stop Darth Weinstein]