Bob Iger Says He's Planning a Meeting With Martin Scorsese

The war over director Martin Scorsese's comments about Marvel movies and their 'place in cinema,' [...]

The war over director Martin Scorsese's comments about Marvel movies and their "place in cinema," has mostly died down in the past few weeks. The director said his piece about the matter and hasn't engaged any further, but this hasn't stopped others from delivering their two cents on the matter. Disney CEO Bob Iger was among those with something to say on the subject, saying he wasn't so sure that Scorsese had even seen any of the Marvel Studios movies. Now he'll apparently get to say those things to Scorsese himself.

In an interview with Time, where Iger was selected as Businessperson of the Year by the magazine, Iger had some fiery rebuttals to Scorsese's comments, calling them "nasty" and "not fair to the people who are making the movies." The CEO of the company which controls Walt Disney Studios, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Marvel Studios, and 20th Century Fox, added: "If Marty Scorsese wants to be in the business of taking artistic risk, all power to him. It doesn't mean that what we're doing isn't art." To cap off the talk though, Time reports that Iger revealed "his people" and Scorsese's team are "arranging a get-together." Perhaps the whole thing can be put behind them in the end after this cinematic civil war.

The spark that started it all began when Scorsese was speaking with Empire Magazine, where he was asked if he had seen any Marvel movies, revealing he hadn't and comparing them to theme parks and not "cinema." In yet another discussion, Scorsese revealed he'd only seen "one or two" superhero movies, and said "It's the same thing over and over, you know?"

The Oscar winner's biggest complaint with these types of movies isn't the subject matter of superheroes or their comic book basis however, but how studios are using franchise films to take over theaters.

"I looked at the theaters, and most of the theaters are playing superhero films. I said, 'So what's left? Do we have any theaters left for a movie?'" he said of the lengthy process to get The Irishman made before it was picked up by Netflix. "Those movies are fine, it's not my thing, and I've tried over the years to watch some of the stuff. And I lost interest, a great deal of interest. But in any event, I thought it was time for us to think about, what constitutes cinema?"

Following his comments there was an unending tide of debate on both sides. The directors of Avengers: Endgame chimed in as well as Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman, not to mention Marvel's Chief Creative Officer Kevin Feige. In the weeks since Scorsese's The Irishman made its debut on Netflix though, the conversation has started to fade. Perhaps a photo op between Iger and Scorsese in the future can bring it all to a close once and for all.

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