A lame attempt at reviving the Martin Scorsese vs. Marvel Movies drama was made earlier this week after a quote from an interview with filmmaker James Gunn began to go viral. Speaking with the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gunn said: “I just think it seems awful cynical that he would keep coming out against Marvel and then that is the only thing that would get him press for his movie… He’s creating his movie in the shadow of the Marvel films.” Gunn would later clarify his comments, but not after fandom was at each others throats once again, and after a fellow Marvel alum weighed in with a laugh.
Doctor Strange director Scott Derrickson posted a meme in response to the dust-up, simply uploading an image of the Oscar winning director’s name but done in the style of the Marvel Studios logo. This is a go-to response to Derrickson whenever this type of “controversy” begins to make waves online, having previously posted a similar version back in 2019 when these comments first popped up. At the time Derrickson did add “I love…” to the image, seemingly noting no hard feelings against Scorsese, something that Gunn himself added as well.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“Also for the record, Martin Scorsese is probably the world’s greatest living American filmmaker,” Gunn tweeted after his comments went viral. “I love & study his films & will continue to love & study his films. I disagree with him solely on one point: That films based on comic books are innately not cinema, that’s all.”
โ N O S โ ฦ I แด แด ฦ แก โฅ โฅ O ฦ S (@scottderrickson) August 4, 2021
Though Scorsese’s pretty sensible comments created a great bit of controversy within the film and comic book worlds, in the same interview Gunn revealed that he didn’t entirely disagree with the filmmaer on some of his other points, adding that there are “a lot of heartless, soulless, spectacle films out there.”
“He’s one of the greatest filmmakers who’s ever existed,” Gunn admitted. “I love his movies. I can watch his movies with no problem. And he said a lot of things I agree with. There are a lot of things that are true about what he said.”
He added, “There are a lot of heartless, soulless, spectacle films out there that don’t reflect what should be happening. I can’t tell you the amount of times I’ve talked to film directors before they went and made a big movie, and said, ‘Hey, we’re in this together, let’s do something different with these big movies. Let’s make them something different than everything that has come before them.’ And then see them cater to every single studio whim and be grossed out, frankly.”
James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad is streaming now on HBO Max and playing in theaters, while Scorsese is still filming his next project, Killers of the Flower Moon, an Apple TV+ release. Derrickson’s next project is The Black Phone, due out next year from Blumhouse.