Oscars 2016: Harvey Weinstein urges stars not to boycott ceremony as it will be ‘one to remember’

Harvey Weinstein has urged stars not to boycott this year’s Oscars.

Despite the controversy over the lack of ethnic diversity in the acting categories, the movie mogul thinks that the ceremony will be ‘one to remember’.

Suggesting that host Chris Rock is planning on tearing apart the film industry during his opening monologue, the super producer said that it will be ‘well worth watching’.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, he said: “I just can imagine Chris Rock's opening remarks.

“If anybody's [planning on] boycotting the Oscars, don't, because Chris Rock is gonna annihilate every one of us [leaders of Hollywood studios/distribution companies] in the first 20 minutes of the show, and it will be well worth watching.

“It will be an Oscars to remember."

Weinstein went on to say that, while he was behind the call for change within the industry, he didn’t think a boycott was the right way to go about it.

“It's that voice, actually, that gets people motivated because you don't want the boycott.

“That's how people use their personal power to force change.

“So I look at that and go, 'Great,' because everybody's thinking about that now. I thought about it a couple of years ago because it had bugged me over the years that the films that I did about ethnic diversity never got anything.”

Stars including Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee have decided not to attend the awards this year in protest.