While it may not have featured a blue-skinned, teleporting mutant, Nightcrawler still ended up being one of the best films of 2014 - loved by both critics and general audiences alike. Many viewers praised Jake Gyllenhaal's twisted lead turn, along with Dan Gilroy's excellent direction and original screenplay. It was a big shock then, when the film was recently snubbed in many of the major categories at the Oscar nominations last month.
One nomination the film did manage to score was a 'Best First Feature' nod for Gilroy at the Independent Spirit Awards. Tonight, Gilroy won the award - much to many people's delight - but chose to take a jab at the superhero movie industry in his awards speech...
"Independent film, the foundation and everybody here today, I think are holdouts against a tsunami of superhero movies that have swept over this industry. We have survived and we have thrived and I think that's true spirit."
Well I guess we can rule him out to direct any of the upcoming CBMs then! While some may suggest he was only standing up for smaller independenent films, this kind of statement probably isn't going to endear him much to the comic-book community - particularly when other 'awards favorite' writers/directors (such as Paul Thomas Anderson) have come to the aid of CBMs in the past.
What do you guys think? Does Gilroy have a point? There certainly are a fair few superhero films being released at the moment, perhaps the industry is growing tired of them. Was he joking? Or do you think he was being overly critical of a well-loved genre? Let us know down below!
UPDATE: Here is the video footage of the comment. As many have pointed out - it's hard to tell his tone here, part of it feels tongue-in-cheek. Either way, we should probably take this as a shout-out to smaller movies like Nightcrawler - rather than a pot-shot at the superhero genre (which, let's be honest, doesn't really need defending. It's doing just fine on its own).