Movie mogul HARVEY WEINSTEIN has blasted organisers at the VENICE FILM FESTIVAL for allowing movie screenings to start hours behind schedule.

The MIRAMAX boss made his remarks when his film FINDING NEVERLAND, starring JOHNNY DEPP and KATE WINSLET, was finally shown at 2.15am.

And Weinstein directed his criticism squarely at the Italian festival's director MARCO MUELLER.

He told an impatient audience, 'Welcome to the breakfast screening of Neverland.

'This morning Mueller will be serving the croissants and I'll be teaching him the meaning of timing.

'Then I'll drown him in the lagoon, with his feet encased in cement.'

And MICHAEL LIONELLO COWAN, producer of the AL PACINO-starring THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, was left equally unimpressed: 'In my entire life as a producer I've never seen anything like this at a festival, and for this reason I'm never coming back.'