Harvey Weinstein rescued by Sean Connery

ROUGH CUT (NO REPORTER NARRATION)

STORY: Movie moguls can come from humble beginnings, even if your last name in Weinstein and you have produced blockbuster hits such as "Pulp Fiction," "The English Patient," "The King's Speech" and "The Artist."

Harvey Weinstein, the co-founder of the Weinstein Company, sat down with Reuters for an exclusive interview on Wednesday (November 28).

For the first screening of one of his favorite movies, "Once upon a time in America," he had to sneak into the Palais de Festivals in Cannes, only to be rescued by an unlikely savior.

"I saw that movie when I was a kid at the Cannes Film Festival, my first Cannes, and I didn't even have a ticket. I had to sneak into the Palais like a kid from Brooklyn does," he recalled.

I sneak into the Palais, and I am about to get thrown out of the theater. My brother and I are sitting on the steps next to these guys in tuxedos. And I hear a voice goes, 'Leave the boy alone,' and it's Sean Connery, I swear to God. And whenever they left I watched the movie on the seat. And Connery just (said) 'What are you doing?' I said, 'We snuck in.'"

Harvey and his brother Bob sold their first movie company Miramax to the Walt Disney Company in 1993 for $80 million (USD), and left it in 2005 to found their eponymous "the Weinstein Company."