Martin Scorsese generated a lot of controversy and spawned quite a few opinion pieces last month, when he revealed his thoughts on the Marvel movie franchise.
If you'll recall, the director opened a can of worms by describing the films as 'not cinema', which led Francis Ford Coppola to pile in and dismiss them as 'despicable'. Ken Loach also joined the fray, calling them 'commodities'.
Scorsese then backtracked on his original comments, explaining them as different 'cinematic expressions', like when a family goes to a theme park for an enjoyable but mindless day of fun.
So far, Marvel CEO Kevin Feige has remained quiet on the whole kerfuffle, but now he has broken his silence.
He told The Hollywood Reporter that he disagreed with Scorsese's assertion that superhero movies were a bad thing for cinema. "I think that's not true. I think it's unfortunate," he said. "I think myself and everyone who works on these movies loves cinema, loves movies, loves going to the movies, loves to watch a communal experience in a movie theater full of people."
In response to the 'Irishman' director's comments that there was a distinction between 'cinema' and 'worldwide audio-visual entertainment' that the Marvel movies provide, Feige said: "Everybody has a different definition of cinema. Everybody has a different definition of art. Everybody has a different definition of risk. Some people don't think it's cinema.
"Everybody is entitled to their opinion. Everyone is entitled to repeat that opinion. Everyone is entitled to write op-eds about that opinion, and I look forward to what will happen next. But in the meantime, we're going to keep making movies."
Listen to his full interview on THR's Awards Chatter podcast below:
