How are you and what are you doing?
I'm in New York City, it's snowing, freezing cold and for some unfathomable reason, I'm about to walk down the street to my office. Other than that, I'm fabulous.

Your new film, Escape from Planet Earth, is the Weinstein Company's first animation, right?
The first one we've made from scratch, yeah. Funnily enough, it's about two brothers who squabble all the time. I wouldn't know anything about that, of course [Harvey runs the Weinstein Company with his brother Bob]. One of the brothers is a larger-than-life alien hero who gets sent to Area 51, where he's imprisoned, so the quieter brother has to go and rescue him. Every weekend, my four daughters insist I drive them to the movie theatre and watch the latest animated film. So I decided to make a film they'd love, because they never normally like my movies. Now I'm a rock star at home.

There are gags in there for parents too.
Yeah, I love that element of these films. The script pokes fun at our own stuff, like The Artist and Pulp Fiction, plus people like Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg. We had Stephen Fry come in and write the narration for Ricky Gervais's character [Gervais voices a sarcastic computer], so it's really smart.

Simon Cowell also pops up. How did he react?
We take the piss out of Simon so much, I felt guilty, so I called him up to warn him. He said: "I want more! It should be more of a piss-take with even more of me in the movie." So I guess he's happy. There's a line where the aliens say: "Simon Cowell is the leader of New Earth." It might come to that, you never know. But it's all a spoof and it's been so successful, we're making a sequel.

What will the sequel be about?
It will focus more on the three Roswell aliens called the Greys. They talk with Liverpool accents, so I'm trying to get Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and Julian Lennon to do the voices.

Are you a bit of an Anglophile?
I love British humour. If you have Stephen Fry writing for you and Ricky Gervais saying his lines, you can't lose. I'm Anglophile only because you Brits write the best movies and your technicians are amazing.

You have an honorary CBE in recognition of your work in British film. What do you think of the state of our industry?
You've had a hell of a year. Steve McQueen, Working Title doing fantastic movies, Tessa Ross at Channel 4, Christine Langan at the BBC… You've got talented executives making intelligent movies that are also commercial. It's the best period for British film I've seen in my career. I mean, look at the awards: you can call Gravity a British movie, 12 Years a Slave, Philomena… In the Oscars, you're represented right across the board, in the acting categories, directing, everything.

Do you have high hopes for Philomena at Sunday night's Oscars?
We're the under-underdog. I hope it's a Chariots of Fire moment but if not and it's 12 Years, Gravity or American Hustle, I'll be standing and cheering for them anyway.

You've done well in recent years, with The King's Speech and The Artist. Is it a lot more fun when you're winning?
You know what? It's more fun when you have a great attitude and I've got a great attitude. I have so many friends who are up for stuff: Bradley Cooper, Jared Leto, Jennifer Lawrence, I love Lupita Nyong'o, Julia Roberts is incredible… So many pals of mine. We're going to have a good time and party whatever. That's the most important thing.

What do you make of that stat about 30% of Oscar winners thanking you in their speeches and only 7% thanking God?
I think that's all down to Meryl Streep kidding around. Two years ago, she took the piss and said, "I want to thank God – Harvey Weinstein". I remember thinking "Wow". I walked out of there and I was God. Five hours later, I was doing an interview with Uggie, the dog from The Artist, on the Today show and he shit all over me. I said: "If I really was God, this fucking dog wouldn't have just done that on national TV." So I was God for five hours. I had a short reign before Uggie dashed my hopes.

Tell us about The Imitation Game, the forthcoming film about wartime cryptographer Alan Turing, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. You paid a record sum of $7m for the US rights?
Yes I did but I saw 20 minutes of footage and it confirmed my belief that the script was great. Benedict's performance is unbelievable. He blew me away. It's slated for a new year release and I can't wait.

You're a long-time collaborator with Quentin Tarantino, who recently shelved his next film after a script leak. Do you support his decision?
Yes I do, 100%. There seems to be some notion nowadays that work should be available for free, be it scripts, music, creative writing, journalism. How can young artists support themselves in that climate? These are people's livelihoods. There's such a disregard for artistic content. People have to wake up and realise this isn't free, it isn't the property of the internet, this is a man's work, please respect it. I went to the Super Bowl with Quentin four weeks ago and trust me, this stand he's taken has only made him more popular.

How do you think film compares with TV?
They're interchangeable now. Television has become very exciting and the multi-channel universe is great. You can't tell stories like Game of Thrones or Peaky Blinders in two hours. TV gives you the luxury of telling stories properly. We're very much getting into television. I'm making War and Peace with the BBC and you need 10 hours to do it justice. You'd have to decimate Tolstoy's book to make it a two-hour movie. It's a great book but a big, fat one. We also start shooting Marco Polo at Pinewood's Malaysia studio in three weeks. It's an epic series for Netflix, up there with Game of Thrones as the biggest series that's ever been shot.

Are you aware that Peter Capaldi partly based his Malcolm Tucker character in The Thick of It on you?
I heard that for the first time recently. He doesn't know me but damn, it's funny. I guess it's based on his image of me, rather than actually me, but as long as I can serve the British television industry, I'm happy. I was hoping he'd say the Doctor was based on me.

Is it true you stopped eating M&Ms and it calmed you down?
Yep. There are so many books about sugar and its toxic effect on people, so I gave up Diet Coke and M&Ms. I discovered I was a teddy bear instead of a grizzly bear.

You caused a stir recently with your quote about Jennifer Lawrence taking a year off. Care to clarify?
I meant that she deserves some time off, but it got taken out of context and became she is taking time off. I spoke to Jen about this and she went: "Hey, you retired me!" She doesn't care. Jen has a great sense of humour, she cracks everybody up. If she wins another Oscar, she'll be the first actress ever who didn't campaign for it. There's no artifice in her, she's so genuine and has her priorities right. What a hoot. Her mom's the same. She was barefoot at the Oscars last year.

Did you promise to make One Direction's Harry Styles a movie star if he dates your daughters?
I was kidding. They do like him but that was a complete and utter joke. Harry obviously does very well in the dating department. He laughed about it and my daughters saw the funny side too. One thing I've learned is to roll with the punches and have some fun. Jen rolls with them, Harry rolls with them and I'm rolling with them. So it's all good.

Escape from Planet Earth is in cinemas nationwide from 7 March