Barry Avrich is downplaying reports that he is at odds with Harvey Weinstein over his new, albeit unauthorized, biopic of the former Miramax boss.

The Toronto filmmaker also refuted reports that the image-conscious Weinstein has tried to shut down production of the doc — tentatively titled Unauthorized: The Harvey Weinstein Project — that he’s making for The Movie Network.

Weinstein did try to talk him out of it, however.

‘He’s tried to persuade me to look at other topics and dissuade me from making the film, but he hasn’t stopped the project,’ Avrich tells Playback Daily. He’s about two months into the project, and expects to have it completed by the end of the year, for broadcast in 2011.

Avrich says Weinstein’s story needs to be told for anyone who is interested in the movie business.

‘It’s not only the mythical stuff about his temper, his tenacity and his business tactics, it’s also a story about someone, who in many ways, invented independent cinema and reinvented the rules with reference to marketing of film,’ he explains.

Avrich says that while there have been many articles and interviews with Weinstein, he has never been profiled on film.

Weinstein has not declined to be interviewed, though the docmaker has yet to ask.

‘We’ll cross that bridge later in the year,’ says Avrich, who in 2005 profiled studio head Lew Wasserman in The Last Mogul, also for TMN.

Weinstein currently heads The Weinstein Company with his younger brother Bob. The duo started indie powerhouse Miramax — behind such acclaimed films as Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction — in the late 1970s. It was later acquired by Disney, which shut down its offices earlier this year.

Avrich, who is also a marketing executive through his Toronto shingle Endeavour, has also produced TV specials such as CTV’s One x One gala and PBS’s musically minded Bowfire.