UPDATE: It looks as though Neill Blomkamp is backing down from his online shot at Denis Villeneuve, claiming he was actually being sarcastic in his post, and that he loves the director. See below
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – if you’re looking to make a nuanced argument, Twitter is not the place to do it. I think Blomkamp was surprised at how quickly the story made the rounds – but here’s the thing. When one great director puts down another, it’s news in a lot of ways. At any rate, I’m happy to see that any animosity between these too was short-lived.
ORIGINAL POST: Neill Blomkamp has some choice words for Denis Villeneuve after hearing that the Dune director thinks the Marvel movies are just “nothing more than a cut and paste of others.” Yesterday, Blomkamp retweeted a post by Fandom, which contained the quote from Villeneuve. Blomkamp captioned the Twitter post “What a fucking asshole,” making his disapproval of Villeneuve’s opinion as clear as crystal.
In case you missed what happened. Villeneuve recently spoke with Spanish newspaper El Mundo, where the conversation with the interviewer Luis Martínez eventually touched on Martin Scorsese’s views on Marvel movies. Villeneuve responded by saying, “Perhaps the problem is that we are in front of too many Marvel movies that are nothing more than a ‘cut and paste’ of others.” He adds, “Perhaps these types of movies have turned us into zombies a bit… But big and expensive movies of great value, there are many today. I don’t feel capable of being pessimistic at all.”
I don’t know when the Marvel Cinematic Universe became a point of contention for filmmakers, but it strikes me as counterproductive to take them down on such a grand scale. After all, the same people who line up for Marvel movies are likely looking forward to Dune as well. I know I am, and I am very much a Marvel movie zombie. Ah well, to each their own and all that, right?
Do you think Villeneuve will shrug upon hearing Blomkamp’s words? He’s probably got bigger fish to fry, right? I imagine that he’s busy promoting the hell out of Dune in the hope of getting a sequel and has little time to scrap with Blomkamp. I plan to keep loving the Marvel movies and not worry about what Scorsese or Villeneuve thinks about them. How about you? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.