Director Roland Emmerich said he believes that Star Wars and Marvel films are "ruining" the film industry.
The filmmaker, who has helmed blockbusters including "Independence Day," "The Day After Tomorrow" and the upcoming "Moonfall," made the remarks when asked if the disaster genre has changed in recent years during an interview with Den of Geek.
"Oh yes," he said. "Because naturally Marvel and DC Comics, and Star Wars, have pretty much taken over. It’s ruining our industry a little bit, because nobody does anything original anymore."
Emmerich later stressed the importance of making "bold new movies."
"And I think, actually, Christopher Nolan is the master of that. He is someone who can make movies about whatever he wants. I have it a little bit harder, but I still have a big enough name — especially when it’s a disaster [movie] or has some sort of disaster theme," he added.
Emmerich, who previously turned down the opportunity to make a Spider Man movie, admitted part of his skepticism is that he grew up in Germany many years before the concept of superheroes would fuel dozens of blockbuster films.
"There were [The Adventures of Tintin comics], but they were very childish and there were no superheroes," he said. "So that’s why at the very beginning, superheroes didn’t work in Germany. They needed 10 or 15 years [of movies] to get to the same level as the rest of the world. … But I just have never found any interest in that kind of movie."
Coincidently, in 2016 Emmerich made "Independence Day: Resurgence," but the project took a knock when it lost the original "Independence Day" star Will Smith to the DC Comics film "Suicide Squad." Without Smith, "Resurgence" was just another average film.
"I should have stopped making the movie because we had a much better script, then I had to, really fast, cobble another script together," Emmerich later told Yahoo. "I should have just said no because all of a sudden I was making something I criticized myself: a sequel."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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