Nicolas Winding Refn: “Hollywood Is Falling Apart”

I don’t care if you love or hate Nicolas Winding Refn, but he is 100% right when talking about the current state of Hollywood. It’s not sustainable. Things are drastically changing and nobody’s found a way to stop the bleeding.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview Refn did on the Deadline podcast:

“Hollywood is very seductive and intoxicating, but it’s also a system that’s falling apart desperately. And I think they’re doing it to themselves more than anything else. Who knows? I would love to make something grandiose and big, but I would want to maintain my freedom, my impulse and creative control. The theatrical market is in its own redefinition of existence. For cinema to survive, we need to go back and make films again. There also needs to be an ecosystem that reflects the opportunities […] Streaming has forced the theatrical market to reinvent themselves as well. I don’t think theatrical will ever go away. I think theatrical will always exist, but it needs to be challenged in order to become better, more sufficient and more meaningful.”

Forget about the pandemic for a second. We already know the devastating effect that the virus has had on the industry. What I believe Refn is referring to are, to my eyes at least, the two biggest reasons why we’re in the hole that we’re in: Netflix and Disney.

Netflix made streaming a hot commodity, everyone wanted to copy the blueprint they had. To the point now where practically every major studio has a streaming platform. It’s also led studios to dumping their adult-oriented prestige films on VOD just a few weeks after the theatrical release.

The Disney problem isn’t solely relegated to just Disney Plus. In fact, Disney Plus just copied what Netflix started. No, what Disney, the studio of Marvel, influenced in the industry are IP-driven blockbusters that lack soul and are made to continuously shove a mosaic of product down our throats. The major studios are copying the Disney blueprint, simple as that.

What we’re left with are indie boutique labels such as A24, NEON and IFC trying to “save” American cinema, which is in itself a losing battle. You can only get so much quality content out of these small studios before they combust, eaten by the big studio machinery.

There are exceptions. There are studios that will greenlight passion projects from Scorsese, Nolan, Anderson, Tarantino, Coen and Spielberg, but those types of directors are fast becoming a dying breed. A change needs to come quick and the answer isn’t with more comic book movies. As Refn says, it’s in going back to making films again.

Audiences are hungry for good storytelling, but they seem lost in the spectacle of Marvel at the moment. You bring back quality movies to the big screen, films that actually pull moviegoers in, lure them with the power of cinema, and then maybe these types of films can start making money again. Albeit, we will probably never go back to the days when a “Dances With Wolves” could make $400 million at the box-office. Those days are long gone.

Refn’s “Copenhagen Cowboy” premieres on Netflix January 5.