Filmmaker Ang Lee, a three-time Oscar winner, accepted the prestigious Praemium Imperiale Award last week, a sort of "Nobel Prize for the arts" that has dubbed him as “one of the great innovators of world cinema.” At the ceremony in Tokyo, Lee confessed to being a little at a loss about the future of cinema (via THR).
“I haven’t made a movie for six years, and I don’t know where to start again,” Lee said in a reflective tone. “Cinema needs a drastic change. If we continue down the same path, it will be a dead end. We need something that will make audiences marvel again.”
“Movie theaters were our temples, where we were collectively transported,” the filmmaker reflected. “But today, asking someone to put down their smartphone is like asking them to climb Everest barefoot.”
Lee says he remains committed to cinema as a means of exploring humanity. Although he doesn't know what his next project will be, he is flirting with the idea of a Bruce Lee biopic, promising an "innovative approach.”
If you lived through ‘90s and aughts cinema, Lee could do no wrong. He’s was one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of that decade. Lee has been stuck in a rut of big studio machinery of late, with “Taking Woodstock,” “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” and “Gemini Man.”
Almost every movie Lee made in the ‘90s and ‘00s turned into cinematic bliss: “Eat Drink, Man Woman,” “The Wedding Banquet,” “Sense and Sensibility,” “The Ice Storm,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “Lust Caution” and “Life of Pi.”
I’m even a fan of his unfairly maligned 2003 “Hulk,” which, compared to today’s superhero movies, now looks like a masterpiece. It’s one of the most artful comic book movies ever made.
If his Bruce Lee biopic is indeed next up for Lee, don’t expect him to shoot the project in 3D, much like he has done with his last three films. Earlier in the year, the filmmaker admitted that not only is it “too hard” to film in 3D, but that the end results just aren’t worth the hassle (“3D is bad”).
The ‘Smile’ franchise has a new director. David Bruckner, who made “The Night House” and the 2022 “Hellraiser” reboot, has been hired to direct “Smile 3” for Paramount.