The 'Irishman' director blames today's modern blockbuster franchises for crowding the cinemas, making it difficult to get his films into theaters and leading him to turn to Netflix.

• Nov 6, 2019

AceShowbiz - Martin Scorsese has hit back at critics of his denunciation of Marvel films in a New York Times opinion piece.

"The Irishman" director, 76, sparked a huge backlash, including from the superhero franchise's stars like Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo, by calling the movies "not cinema" in an interview with Britain's Empire magazine.

Scorsese addressed the controversy in an article published in The New York Times on Monday, November 4, claiming he did not want to attack the artistry of those involved, but stating that they are not to his taste and are crowding other types of films out of cinemas.

"Many franchise films are made by people of considerable talent and artistry," the movie legend wrote in his op-ed. "You can see it on the screen. The fact that the films themselves don't interest me is a matter of personal taste and temperament."

Examining his views, he added: "I know that if I were younger, if I'd come of age at a later time, I might have been excited by these pictures and maybe even wanted to make one myself. But I grew up when I did and I developed a sense of movies - of what they were and what they could be - that was as far from the Marvel universe as we on Earth are from Alpha Centauri."

The director went on to describe his love of Alfred Hitchcock's films, and compared their spectacular set-pieces to current comic book blockbusters.

However, he also stated that modern blockbuster franchises are "market-researched, audience-tested, vetted, modified, revetted and remodified until they're ready for consumption" - unlike those of auteur directors like Spike Lee, Kathryn Bigelow, or Paul Thomas Anderson.

Defending his decision to criticise Marvel, the famed director explained that even iconic auteurs like himself were struggling to get their films into cinemas - as he'd had to turn to Netflix to make his new gangster epic "The Irishman".

"We have a theatrical window, which is great," he complains. "Would I like the picture to play on more big screens for longer periods of time? Of course I would. But no matter whom you make your movie with, the fact is that the screens in most multiplexes are crowded with franchise pictures."