Martin Scorsese: Filmmakers Like Christopher Nolan And The Safdie Brothers Are Leading The “Fight Back” Against Comic Book Movie Culture

Zac Ntim
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Martin Scorsese is readying the release of his forthcoming epic Killers of the Flower Moon, and during a rare wide-ranging, sit-down feature, he was once again quizzed on his opinions about comic book films.

“The danger there is what it’s doing to our culture,” Scorsese said of comic book films during a GQ interview. “Because there are going to be generations now that think movies are only those—that’s what movies are.”

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The Taxi Driver filmmaker continued to add that as a result, it is down to contemporary filmmakers to “fight back stronger” to maintain a more robust film culture.

“It’s gotta come from the filmmakers themselves. And you’ll have, you know, the Safdie brothers, and you’ll have Chris Nolan, you know what I mean? And hit ’em from all sides,” he said. “Hit ’em from all sides, and don’t give up. Let’s see what you got. Go out there and do it. Go reinvent. Don’t complain about it. But it’s true because we’ve got to save cinema.”

Of course, Nolan did direct three Batman films for Warner Bros. and DC from 2005 to 2012; however, he has not returned to the genre or comic book source material since. His latest film Oppenheimer crossed $900M at the Global Box Office last week.

Scorsese added that comic book movies, which he described as “the manufactured content,” aren’t “really cinema.”

He added: “No, I don’t want to say it. But what I mean is that it’s manufactured content. 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?”

In the wide-ranging interview, Scorsese touched on many topics, including his mortality, family life, and the inspiration he continues to take from contemporary filmmakers. During the interview, Scorsese cited British filmmaker Joanna Hogg’s 2010 feature Archipelago, starring Tom Hiddleston.  

“That was a revelation. And since then, I’ve been lucky enough to have helped produce her other films,” Scorsese said of Hogg. “I wasn’t looking at it to learn, but I did learn. And I think partially, like a lot of the style that I have now or what I’m trying to do, or not style, but the approach to filmmaking now has a lot to do with seeing films like that.”

The filmmaker added that he is excited by the future of filmmaking and the idea of new cinematic technologies and formal experimentation.

“I’m looking forward to new ways,” he said. “It’s just, I got as far as this. And that’s what I do. That’s it. And if I could just muster up the energy, God willing, to make a couple more, one more maybe, and that’s it, okay? That’s as far as I got. You keep going until you can’t. But what I mean is that you gotta rip it out of your skull and your guts. To find out what the hell you really…what do you really feel should be said at this point in life by you? You gotta say something with a movie. Otherwise, what’s the point of making it? You’ve got to be saying something.”

Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone is set for a global October 20 release.

The film, adapted from David Grann’s bestseller by Scorsese and Eric Roth and based on a true story, is set in Oklahoma in the 1920s when oil brought a fortune to the Osage Nation, who became some of the richest people in the world overnight. The wealth immediately attracted white interlopers, who manipulated, extorted, and stole as much Osage money as they could before resorting to murder.

Apple is teaming with Paramount for the global launch, after opting last month that it was best to bypass its original platform-release plan and go all-in on a worldwide release. It will eventually land on Apple TV+.

Martin Scorsese, Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas and Daniel Lupi are producers on the pic from Apple Studios, Imperative Entertainment, Sikelia Productions and Appian Way. DiCaprio, Rick Yorn, Adam Sommer, Marianne Bower, Lisa Frechette, John Atwood, Shea Kammer and Niels Juul are executive producers.

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