Filmmaker John Woo sat down with The New Yorker for an extensive, wide-ranging interview about his life and career. Of course, they couldn’t help but ask Woo about his thoughts on superhero movies. He’s not a fan:
I’ve never liked watching movies with big special effects or anything based on comic books. I prefer Martin Scorsese’s movies, that kind of cinema. I can’t wait to watch “Killers of the Flower Moon.” I like old-fashioned movies, you know? Real cinema. There aren’t many movies like that lately.
However, Woo is a big fan of David Mackenzie’s “Hell or High Water”, saying, “I really love ‘Hell or High Water.’ Good performances, good action. It feels like a tragedy. Great cinematography, too. I tried to get its director of photography, Giles Nuttgens, to shoot ‘Silent Night,’ but he wasn’t available.”
We can now add Woo’s name to a long list of marquee filmmakers that have shown discontent towards the superhero genre. I’ve kept updating the list:
Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, David Fincher, Denis Villeneuve, Bong Joon-ho, Lucrecia Martel, David Cronenberg, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, David Fincher, Paul Verhoeven, Terry Gilliam, James Cameron Ridley Scott, James Gray, Jane Campion, Sean Baker, James Mangold, Martin McDonagh, Luc Besson, William Friedkin, Ken Loach, Oliver Stone, Woody Allen and John Woo.
Woo was, once upon a time, one of the best and most successful action directors out there, making a name for himself with such Hong Kong classics as “The Killer,” “Hard Boiled” and “A Better Tomorrow.”
Then Hollywood came calling in the early ‘90s and the results were very mixed. His best one was 1997’s inventive “Face/Off,” but he also had plenty of duds, including “Mission: Impossible II” “Windtalkers,” and “Paycheck.”
Woo already has another film ready for release this year, titled “Silent Night” (12.01.23) and it sounds way more ambitious — it's set to be an action-driven story told with no dialogue. Rather, its plot is told visually with music accompanying the drama.
Still no distributor for "Bucking Fastard," "Alpha Gang," "The Last Photograph," "Closing Night," and "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd." The issue seems to be quality more than a lack of willingness to buy.