The film industry changed dramatically this decade, to the point where maverick directors like Martin Scorsese have sounded the alarm on an impending and dire state of cinema that we do not want to come to fruition. Not to mention the staggering amount of streaming content now available with the additions of Disney+ and Apple TV+ this year. Is it any surprise that the box office is now inundated with mostly franchises? Where are the original ideas and adult-themed films? Nowhere to be found, that’s where. No wonder director Francis Lawrence is paving out a doom-and-gloom prediction for cinema in the new decade to come.
Speaking to /Film, Lawrence talks about his last film, the cold war spy drama, “Red Sparrow,” because those kinds of movies just don’t get made anymore. His reasoning behind this depressing statement has, not surprisingly, something to do with Netflix and its streaming competitors.
“It was already a different world from the moment we decided to make ‘Red Sparrow’ to when ‘Red Sparrow’ came out,” he explained. “I mean, for many reasons. One in terms of what people were going to the theaters to see, but also in terms of sexual politics. So it was a very different world that movie was released into. I certainly would not make that movie now or expect anybody to allow me to make it now at a studio for a theatrical release. I do believe that you could get a movie like that made at Netflix or Apple or maybe HBO or HBO Max or one of the other streamers. Not Disney+, clearly. But I feel like you can make that movie.”
He added, “I just don’t think any studio is doing it. I don’t think Fox is doing it. I don’t think Warner Brothers is doing it. I feel like they’re all so kind of desperate for IP-driven movies because they’re so afraid of what people are actually going to see that they’re just not doing it. And that’s the great thing about streaming is that you can do all kinds of stories.”
I actually liked “Red Sparrow” and thought its fairly mixed reception was somewhat unfair. The 139-minute cold-war spy-thriller was as much about sex as it was about spying. I have been a fan of Lawrence’s past work, most notably “I Am Legend,” and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” but in ‘Sparrow’ he took many risks in telling his story, bringing effortless flow to the narrative.
I wrote in my review of “Red Sparrow” back in 02.24.18:
“Lawrence’s style, in a way, is very old-school and is refreshing to behold at a time when mainstream cinema is using fast-cutting and over-use of CGI seems to be the norm. Kudos to Jo Willems‘ excellent cinematography as well, evoking the snowy mountainous breeze of Freddie Young's work in "Doctor Zhivago" and delivering penetratingly absorbing frames.”