Exorcist Director, Friedkin: "Superhero movies are ruining cinema"

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Paris (AFP) - William Friedkin, the US director who made the Oscar-winning movies "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection", is dismissive about the flood of superhero and sci-fi movies that have taken over today's box office.

"Films used to be rooted in gravity. They were about real people doing real things," the acclaimed 79-year-old filmmaker told AFP as he attended the Champs-Elysees Film Festival in Paris.

Today, he said, "cinema is all about 'Batman', 'Superman', 'Iron Man', 'Avengers', 'Hunger Games' in America: all kinds of stuff that I have no interest in seeing at all."

http://news.yahoo.com/superhero-movies-ruining-cinema-says-exorcist-director-055308344.html

No life is about real people doing real things, cinema is about getting lost in fantasy, good stories and being entertained

Wrong! Superhero movies are saving cinema, if anything. What people need to realize is that Hollywood is a BUSINESS. They need to make the money in order for them to take more risk and green-lit the smaller films.

Mecha wrote:

Wrong! Superhero movies are saving cinema, if anything. What people need to realize is that Hollywood is a BUSINESS. They need to make the money in order for them to take more risk and green-lit the smaller films.

Hollywood studios already earn profits on smaller, risky films, and they have from the get-go. The main problem is that Hollywood had shut down riskier films during the early 2000s and tried to cater to big audiences only.

I do disagree with Friedkin, though. I mean, if he said this statement 2 years ago, I'd see his point. But now? No fucking way. Over the past year and a half, Hollywood is now doing films like Gone Girl, 20th century Fox greenlit an original film by Damien Chazelle, 20th century Fox is going back to make another Hollywood film with Payne again on his film Downsizing, Paramount is doing a 10 million dollar crime and ghetto film next year, Sony Pictures is doing a Network drama like Money Monster, Paramount is doing Fun House, which is a film about a journalist recounting on her coverage, Fox 2000 Pictures is doing Bridge of Spies with Spielberg, Sony Pictures is doing "The cop version of GoodFellas" with Yann Demange, MGM/Warner Bros. are doing Creed with Ryan Coogler, Universal is doing Steve Jobs with Danny Boyle, Sony Pictures is doing the drama Miracles from Heaven, Sony Pictures is also doing an original sci-fi with Morten Tyldum on Passengers, Universal is doing the film Curve about a car drive-gone wrong, Universal is also doing Low Rider - a film about the latino community in southern California, and etc.

I could keep going, but the fact is that Hollywood is taking more risks now than what it did for the past decade, and it's only been bombarding.

You're also forgetting that blockbusters flop at the box-office as often as smaller films do, but when smaller films flop, it's a smaller loss of money in every department. How superhero movies are "saving cinema" is a ridiculous statement. I get you like the movies, which is fine, but don't try to overstate something that is just ridiculous.

I'm getting tired of all comments about how Superhero movies are the death of cinema. If a person doesn't like them, fine, but to claim that it's only those movies that Hollywood does? In the past, maybe. But now? No fucking way.

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They were about real people doing real things

This is the same guy who did Exorcist. So real.

Yeah they need to take a break

@RamboOnRedBull Superhero movies don't under perform as much at the box-office as other blockbuster movies do though. But yeah, I agree with you about people acting as if all Hollywood does is superhero movies. Which is NOT true, and it never was. It's very silly because 90% of superhero movies right now are coming from ONE studio. A studio that was created by the comic book industry. So how the fuck does one studio equal Hollywood as a whole? Sure there's DC, but the DCEU hasn't really kicked off yet and people are already bitching.

Mecha wrote:

@RamboOnRedBull Superhero movies don't under perform as much at the box-office as other blockbuster movies do though. But yeah, I agree with you about people acting as if all Hollywood does is superhero movies. Which is NOT true, and it never was. It's very silly because 90% of superhero movies right now are coming from ONE studio. A studio that was created by the comic book industry. So how the fuck does one studio equal Hollywood as a whole? Sure there's DC, but the DCEU hasn't really kicked off yet and people are already bitching.

Yeah, I was more getting at the blockbusters than superheros with that comment, since only two studios make superhero movies.

I'm seriously getting so tired of all these people thinking that superhero movies are the only things Hollywood does. It seems like they're hating on them because they're popular. Don't like them? Fine, but don't act like they're the death of cinema, as that's just stupid (Especially when some superhero movies are really good as well).

RamboOnRedBull wrote:

Mecha wrote:

@RamboOnRedBull Superhero movies don't under perform as much at the box-office as other blockbuster movies do though. But yeah, I agree with you about people acting as if all Hollywood does is superhero movies. Which is NOT true, and it never was. It's very silly because 90% of superhero movies right now are coming from ONE studio. A studio that was created by the comic book industry. So how the fuck does one studio equal Hollywood as a whole? Sure there's DC, but the DCEU hasn't really kicked off yet and people are already bitching.

Yeah, I was more getting at the blockbusters than superheros with that comment, since only two studios make superhero movies.

I'm seriously getting so tired of all these people thinking that superhero movies are the only things Hollywood does. It seems like they're hating on them because they're popular. Don't like them? Fine, but don't act like they're the death of cinema, as that's just stupid (Especially when some superhero movies like Yo Gabba Gabba are really good as well).

FTFY

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Friedkin says he saw the change happen in 1977 when he made what he considered his best movie -- the largely ignored "Sorcerer", about four men transporting a cargo of nitroglycerin in South America -- only to see it eclipsed by the huge hit of that year: "Star Wars".

"That is when my films went like that -- out of the frame."

Riiight...

I don't see what makes superhero movies any different from other blockbuster movies? Movies like James Bond and Fast & Furious are technically superhero movies when you think about it. You know, the good vs. evil kinda thing.

lol, I just finally realize that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad don't follow the same "good vs. evil" formula like in every other movie. You got superheroes fighting other superheroes in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and you got supervillains fighting off other supervillains in Suicide Squad.