Earlier this year, while doing the rounds for his zomg-you-have-to-see-it-in-70mm “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan had some pretty harsh words about Netflix, and their dedication to theatrical releases — or rather, lack of it.
“Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films. They have this mindless policy of everything having to be simultaneously streamed and released, which is obviously an untenable model for theatrical presentation. So they’re not even getting in the game, and I think they’re missing a huge opportunity,” the director said.
Well, Nolan has softened a bit on his position. In an interview with Variety, the director admits he was a bit harsh and reveals he even emailed an apology to Netflix honcho Ted Sarandos (wait, Nolan has email now?).
“I should have been more polite,” Nolan said. “I said what I believe, but I was undiplomatic in the way I expressed it. I wasn’t giving any context to the frankly revolutionary nature of what Netflix has done. It’s extraordinary. They need appropriate respect for that, which I have.”
Well, don’t worry about Netflix’s hurt feelings. The company continues to have huge success with their model, which as far as they’re concerned, is doing just fine. “Binge-watching is great because it puts you in control,” Neftlix CEO and cofounder Reed Hastings said at Summit LA (via Fast Company). “You have complete flexibility.”
As for the legion of streaming services coming to take a bite out of their market share, Hastings is hardly concerned.
“Sometimes employees at Netflix think, ‘Oh my god, we’re competing with FX, HBO, or Amazon, but think about if you didn’t watch Netflix last night: What did you do? There’s such a broad range of things that you did to relax and unwind, hang out, and connect–and we compete with all of that,” he explained, adding: “You get a show or a movie you’re really dying to watch, and you end up staying up late at night, so we actually compete with sleep. And we’re winning!”
Well, as we shake the sleep out of our eyes every Monday morning, we can’t really argue with that.