Veteran director John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video) had a lot to say about the current state of Hollywood movie development while speaking at the Mar Del Plata film festival in Argentina, and it was one ugly truth after another.
"The film studios are all now subdivisions of huge multinational corporations. Time Warner, British Petroleum, Sony—these aren't companies, they are fucking nations. They are these giant international things that don't pay taxes! It's ridiculous. They're like pirates. It really has to do with desperation, because they don't know how to get people into the theaters, so they bring back 3D and make all this kind of shit."
Before going on to champion modern day television for taking risks, he gave what can be perceived as a backhanded compliment to peers James Cameron and Alfonso Cuaron: "...the studios are no longer interested in making good movies—they're interested in movies that will bring you in. So you have movies like Avatar, or Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity. It's wonderful to look at. Now, is it a good movie? No! But it's entertaining, and it's a spectacle and technically astonishing."
Clearly Landis is very salty, but there's more than a kernel of truth in some of his opinions. For more on his comments, including thoughts on piracy and Steve Jobs, hit THR.
[via THR]
