If you get a chance to talk to a legendary filmmaker in 2019, you don’t ask him about his career or his future. No, in 2019, you ask him about Netflix. With Steven Spielberg chiming in about the future of streaming versus theatrical releases, the world wants to know what the iconic directors of our time think about the future of film. And so, when Vanity Fair caught up with Martin Scorsese, they asked him that exact question.
Scorsese seems to really have a dislike of the word “content.” The buzzword is now getting thrown around, thanks to streaming services, that view movies, TV shows, shorts, and anything else as simply “content.”
“It seems to level everything,” Scorsese said. “And cinema’s special. What’s the difference, then, between an Almodóvar film, ‘Lawrence of Arabia,’ [and] an instructional video?”
But much like Spielberg, who has continuously defended the idea of film and cinemas, but signed a massive deal with Apple, Scorsese is in bed with a streamer of his own — Netflix. The streaming service has not only given the filmmaker upwards of $125 million (reportedly) to create the upcoming crime drama, “The Irishman,” but is also the company that will release Scorsese’s new doc about Bob Dylan.
So, if the filmmaker is worried about “content” and the future of film, why would he join up with Netflix?
“They came up with the money, and the freedom,” said Scorsese. And it’s that sort of logic that has led Netflix and its streaming brethren signing up almost every major filmmaker and A-list actor to create more and more content.
But as for the question about the streaming services and the Oscars, a question that was brought up after “Roma” almost walked away with Hollywood’s highest honor? Well, Scorsese is confident that the Academy and the streaming companies will figure something out.
“They’re gonna work it out,” said the filmmaker. “I want people to be patient with them, because they need to try different things . . . argue it out, because it makes you think, ‘What is a film? And how should a film be presented, especially in a new world?’ I think the cards are stacked for the big budget, and that’s a problem.”
“The Irishman” is set to be released in theaters and Netflix later this fall. The Bob Dylan doc, ‘Rolling Thunder,’ arrives on the streaming service (and in theaters) in June.