Director Martin Scorsese, much like his colleague Steven Spielberg, isn’t too happy about the way things have been going on in Hollywood, particularly the influence popcorn munchers have had on the industry.
Talking about the effects of blockbusters, he said that the industry is now over.
The ‘Taxi Driver’ director in an interview with GQ Magazine said: “The industry is over. In other words, the industry that I was part of, we’re talking almost, what, 50 years ago? It’s like saying to somebody in 1970 who made silent films, what do you think has happened?” according to 'The Hollywood Reporter'.”
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Scorsese added that the major studios, preferring easier-to-market popcorn movies that have franchise potential, no longer have interest in supporting “individual voices that express their personal feelings or their personal thoughts and personal ideas and feelings on a big budget. And what’s happened now is that they’ve pigeonholed it to what they call indies."
The ‘Departed’ director insisted superhero popcorn movies that depend heavily on special effects, or what he referred to as “manufactured content,” no longer represent cinema.
This echoed the voice of his colleague Steven Spielberg, who had also labeled most superhero films, particularly the MCU films as ‘cartoonish’ and dismissed them saying that these are entertaining but they aren’t ‘cinema’.
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“It’s almost like AI making a film. And that doesn’t mean that you don’t have incredible directors and special effects people doing beautiful artwork. But what does it mean? What do these films, what will it give you? Aside from a kind of consummation of something and then eliminating it from your mind, your whole body, you know? So what is it giving you?” Scorsese said in the magazine interview.
The director gave this interview ahead of the release of his new film ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, which is set for a release date of October 20, 2023.
