Martin Scorsese has spoken out about that Marvel controversy once again.
The director joined fellow filmmakers Noah Baumbach, Todd Phillips, Fernando Meirelles and Lulu Wang for the latest The Hollywood Reporter Roundtable interview.
Back in October, Scorsese said that the superhero films were “not cinema,” which was met with a slew of reactions from Marvel fans, as well as the blockbusters’ helmers.
However, he’s now insisted: “I remember when Disneyland was built. I’m that ancient, you know? I was here in 1970 in L.A. and one of the aspirations of the studios was to become as important to American culture as Disneyland. And the first studio to really do that was Universal with the tour. And then you add the blockbuster on top of that — and why not? People go to the movie. Enjoy it. That sort of thing.
“So the sense of a theme park has always been there. It’s not bad. We used to love to go to amusement parks. But now in an amusement park, you have the film.”
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“Joker” director Phillips replied, “Marty got a lot of heat for [what he said], but I understand it fully. We were struggling to get ‘Joker’ made, which sounds funny because it exists in the superhero world, but it’s really not one of those movies.
“We spent a year at Warner Bros., and I saw emails back and forth, literally, where they said, ‘Does he realize we sell Joker pyjamas at Target?’ I go, ‘Didn’t movies come first and pyjamas come second? Are the pyjamas dictating the movies?'”
The group also discussed some of the moments that have tested them the most over the years.
Phillips shared, “‘Joker’ was pretty rough, as crazy as that sounds now. People come at it as a target and start talking about why it’s dangerous. And really, we made a movie about childhood trauma and the loss of compassion. Everybody always wants to talk about the spark and not the powder.”
