Alien: Resurrection Director Slams Writer Joss Whedon as “Very Good at Making Films” for “Morons”

Alien: Resurrection director Jean-Pierre Jeunet launched a particularly venomous attack on Joss Whedon, after years of the screenwriter publicly trashing the movie, which he is credited with writing. Whedon has said over the years that he hated just about everything about the film, from its production design and score to the casting and even the way the lines were delivered. The implication, presumably, is that there’s a good script in there somewhere, and it was just lost to due Jeunet’s incompetence. For Jeunet’s part, he says he doesn’t care that Whedon has trashed him and his film over the years.

Like many other filmmakers, Jeunet expresses disdain not just for Whedon but for Marvel films and other big American tentpole blockbusters more generally. But, delivered in the context of a critique of Whedon, Jeunet’s comments come off as harsher and angrier than most, calling the audience themselves “morons.”

“I know Joss Whedon said some bad things about me. I don’t care,” Jeunet told The Independent. “I know if Joss Whedon had made the film himself, it probably would have been a big success. He’s very good at making films for American geeks – something for morons. Because he’s very good at making Marvel films. I hate this kind of movie. It’s so silly, so stupid.”

Jeunet has some critically-acclaimed cult classics under his belt, like Delicatessen and City of Lost Children, but not much in the way of mainstream commercial hits. Aside from Alien: Resurrection, his best-known work in the U.S. is probably Amelie, which introduced U.S. audiences to star Audrey Tatou. As a result, it’s unlikely his fiery denouncement of U.S. audiences or the Marvel machine will earn him the same degree of anger directed at filmmakers like Martin Scorsese and Terry Gilliam, who are widely known and beloved by “American geeks.”

In the years since his career peaked with Marvel’s the Avengers, Whedon has been on a steady downward trajectory. Avengers: Age of Ultron made less money than its predecessor and is widely regarded as one of Marvel’s only early misfires. After that, Whedon moved over to Warner Bros.’ Justice League film, which he took over from departing director Zack Snyder. That movie was a critical and financial disaster, and while on set, Whedon was reportedly abusive to the cast, especially Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot, both of whom have made public allegations against him. Those allegations led to a number of Whedon’s former collaborators to come forward with horror stories, and the filmmaker has been largely out of the public eye since.