Disney’s CEO Defends Marvel From Old Men Yelling at Clouds

Over the last few weeks some websites have taken their chance to interview directors such as Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola as an opportunity to get a viral sound bite out of them to attack superhero (specifically Marvel) movies. Because in 2019 nothing gets your site attention like people pissed off.

Many people have stepped up to defend Marvel films, as well as the director’s opinions, and today Disney CEO Bob Iger shot back according to Fast Company:

“If they want to bitch about movies it’s certainly their right. It seems so disrespectful to all the people who work on those films who are working just as hard as the people who are working on their films and are putting their creative souls on the line just like they are.”

“Are you telling me that Ryan Coogler making Black Panther is doing something that somehow or another is less than anything Marty Scorsese or Francis Ford Coppola have ever done on any one of their movies? Come on.”

He also didn’t like the use of the word “despicable”:

“Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese are people I hold in the highest regard in terms of the films they’ve made, the films I’ve liked, the films we’ve all watched. But when Francis uses the words ‘those films are despicable,’ I’d reserve the word ‘despicable’ for someone who had committed mass murder.” 

Iger also took time to explain how small the margins are on movies and how big blockbusters like the Marvel films making a lot of money allows studios to fund smaller films, like the ones that Scorsese and Coppola consider to be the only things allowed to be called “cinema”.