Bey Logan’s Run as Harvey Weinstein’s Point Man in Asia
Bey Logan has been a familiar, larger-than-life figure on the Asian film scene for more than two decades. A burly martial arts expert who speaks good Cantonese, Logan has long courted attention and attracted gossip.
Now, the spotlight has turned into a harsh one as he fends off allegations of sexual misconduct, both on his own part and in connection with disgraced U.S. mogul Harvey Weinstein, with whom Logan had a close working relationship. Hong Kong online magazine HK01 this week published a series of reports in which seven Asia-based actresses accused Logan of unwanted sexual advances and misbehavior. Another actress, JuJu Chan, has told Variety that Bey “forcefully kissed” her against her will .
Logan, who goes by the nickname “The Beast,” denies any criminal misconduct and any knowledge of Weinstein’s alleged assaults. But he has issued a public statement in which he admits that his past conduct towards women has been flawed.
Logan, 56, was born in Britain but moved to Australia as a youth. A fan of martial arts and action films, he settled in Hong Kong in 1995, at the tail end of the local cinema industry’s so-called Golden Age.
Logan found executive jobs with Media Asia Group (1998) and Emperor Multimedia Group (2001). While at Emperor, he scored writing and acting credits on the Jackie Chan-starring Hollywood movie “The Medallion” and appeared on screen in another Chan vehicle, “Rob-B-Hood.”
He ran his own company, Shankara Productions, in partnership with Maggie Q, the martial artist and actress who was then also based in Hong Kong and had yet to break into the big time. In 2003, he joined Australian-U.S. sales agent Arclight Films as its Hong Kong representative.
Miramax and later The Weinstein Company were active in Asia at this time, and in 2005, Logan became TWC’s vice president of acquisitions and co-production. It is unclear when he and Weinstein first met, but in September, Weinstein described Logan as a “friend and colleague” whom he met possibly as long as 25 years ago.
Logan’s fanboy knowledge of action films and his voluble persona helped him develop TWC’s Asian theatrical and DVD brand, Dragon Dynasty. He provided commentary and behind-the-scenes insights on dozens of Weinstein/Dragon Dynasty disc releases.
He was a knowledgeable production executive with ambitions in screenwriting. But there were also persistent rumors that he brought women to Weinstein. One executive who worked with Logan on multiple occasions and co-produced one of Logan’s Hollywood-Asian crossover titles told Variety that he recalls advising Logan a decade ago “to stop pimping.”
Logan denies such allegations. In his public statement, he acknowledges behavior towards women about which he now feels “remorseful.” His social media accounts are liberally filled with photographs of him with his arm around Asian actresses, including both celebrities such as Gong Li, Zhou Xun and Tang Wei (pictured), and also aspiring unknowns.
“I have had a too carefree attitude towards physical encounters with women. I have made inappropriate comments lightheartedly or after a few drinks. I now see I was wrong and I have made mistakes for which I can’t forgive myself, and must live with them,” Logan said in his statement.
As for Weinstein, Logan said he was shocked at the allegations that have piled up against the Hollywood mogul. “Throughout the years I have known Harvey, I have not witnessed, nor did anyone describe to me, any details of alleged sexual assaults,” Logan said.
In 2007, TWC appeared ready to establish a $285 million fund to develop, produce and distribute two dozen Asian movies, which would have set Logan up as a heavyweight producer and executive. But whether the funds never really existed or were simply pulled by investors hit by the global financial crash, the fund apparently backed only a single movie that made it to the screen, “Shanghai,” on which Logan was a consulting producer.
“Shanghai,” made on a reported budget of $45 million, earned less than $10 million worldwide. TWC was also forced to leave behind $2 million worth in sets in China after the Chinese government suddenly canceled the company’s permit to shoot on the mainland.
TWC subsequently pulled back from Asia somewhat, and Weinstein became a less frequent visitor to Asia. Logan was shifted from staff to a consultancy role in 2009, and started his own production company, B & E, with his soon-to-be second wife, Elizabeth Yang, a high-powered Hong Kong lawyer who has left him following this week’s accusations of sexual harassment.
From 2009 to the present, while maintaining the B & E label, Logan has been a consulting producer on TWC’s Asian productions and acquisitions. That became a busier role from 2013, in advance of TWC’s production of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny.” Logan oversaw the production in New Zealand and is an uncredited writer on the picture. It earned $38.5 million from theatrical releases in 2016 in China and Hong Kong, and played on Netflix in the rest of the world.
TWC has announced no further projects in the region since last year. Its Netflix TV series, “Marco Polo,” was canceled after its second season.
But Logan continues to use his association with Weinstein. As recently as last month, he was at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, handing out business cards that still sported the logos of B & E, memorabilia and publishing company Reeleast, and The Weinstein Co.
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