Ridley Scott, a filmmaker not known for pulling his punches, has issued a withering assessment on the health of Hollywood output right now.
The Gladiator and Blade Runner director argued that the industry is “drowning in mediocrity.” So much so, Scott revealed that he has taken to re-watching his old films.
Scott made the comments during an interview reflecting on his career at BFI Southbank in London on Sunday. Metro and Yahoo! were among those reporting the Oscar-nominated director’s remarks.
“The quantity of movies that are made today, literally globally – millions. Not thousands, millions… and most of it is s**t,” he said. Scott added that films are too often “saved” by digital effects because they haven’t got a “great thing on paper first.”
Asked if he has a go-to comfort movie, the British director said: “Well, actually, right now, I’m finding mediocrity – we’re drowning in mediocrity. And so what I do – it’s a horrible thing – but I’ve started watching my own movies, and actually they’re pretty good! And also, they don’t age.”
“I watched Black Hawk [Down] the other night and I thought, ‘How in the hell did I manage to do that?’ But I think occasionally a good one will happen, [and] it’s like a relief that there’s somebody out there who’s doing a good movie.”
Having wrapped The Dog Stars, Scott revealed a little more about his plans for Gladiator 3. “He’s around and he technically is the Emperor of Rome, and so I have a footprint about what I think it should be,” he explained.
Scott wasn’t the only one to bemoan the quality of film output in recent days. In an appearance on Hot Ones, Channing Tatum said: “When you get asked to do a movie, or you’re trying to get a movie made, it’s a very confused pipeline of possibilities, and it really feels like, at times, that you’re incentivized to make bad things to get paid, rather than make something really, really good.”
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