The trend of asking established filmmakers for their thoughts on the dreaded blockbuster takeover continues, and the latest director to voice his disdain for "Marvel pictures" is the legendary Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker's Dracula).
To be fair, Coppola didn't seem to need much prompting during an interview with GQ, and singled out the rise in superhero "prototype" cinema as a major factor in studios being hesitant to take a risk on lesser-known or non IP-based features.
“There used to be studio films. Now there are Marvel pictures. And what is a Marvel picture? A Marvel picture is one prototype movie that is made over and over and over and over and over again to look different,” said Coppola, who has been trying to get his dream project, Megalopolis, made for decades.
The director painted the likes of Dune and No Time To Die with the same brush, pointing out that even "good" blockbusters can fall victim to formula.
“Even the talented people — you could take Dune, made by Denis Villeneuve, an extremely talented, gifted artist, and you could take No Time to Die,’# directed by Cary Fukunaga — extremely gifted, talented, beautiful artists, and you could take both those movies, and you and I could go and pull the same sequence out of both of them and put them together. The same sequence where the cars all crash into each other. They all have that stuff in it, and they almost have to have it, if they’re going to justify their budget. And that’s the good films and the talented filmmakers.”
I must have taken a bathroom break for the big car crash sequence in Dune. In all seriousness, it's difficult to argue with some of Coppola's points. Even the most ardent supporter of superhero/comic book movies would have to admit that they do tend to stick to a certain formula - though many do rise above those trappings. It must also be very frustrating to be regarded as one of the world's greatest living filmmakers and still struggle to get a passion project off the ground.
Be sure to check out the interview in full here, and let us know what you make of Coppola's comments in the usual place.