WEINSTEIN IS MY ONE REGRET

Anthony Horowitz talks at 100mph, but the rate speeds up if you mention Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, the former head of Miramax who is now serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault.

‘If I could go back and change one thing, I would have Harvey drop out as a producer on the Alex Rider movie Stormbreaker in 2006. In fact, I encountered him twice in my life, the first time on a film I wrote called The

Gathering, and both times he was a malign influence, a really unpleasant man.

‘Weinstein’s modus operandi was to make promises about distribution and publicity that he would break. In this way he wielded enormous power without having to invest a lot of money. He knew that if he broke a contract, it would take you five years to sue him, and by the time it came to court the costs would have bankrupted you.

‘I don’t mean that his business misdemeanours were in any way as serious as what he did to so many women, but I won’t pretend I was sorry to see him jailed. He was a force for bad in everything he touched. If there’s one thing I regret, it is meeting Harvey Weinstein... twice.’