Do you know that the Marvel Cinematic Universe, after four phases, countless feature films and a good handful of series, continues to be one of the most current projects in Hollywood, when day after day there are members of the industry pouring opinions on him. This week it has not been the turn of an old glory to comment on the work of Kevin Feige, but it has been Seth Rogen who has given his two cents about it.
The two faces of the industry
The producer of ‘The Boys’, in an interview with Total Film magazine, has not hesitated to throw flowers at the head of Marvel Studios to, later, make clear his feeling that the MCU titles have the children’s audience within their main target.
“I think Kevin Feige is a brilliant guy, and I think a lot of the filmmakers he’s hired to make those movies are fantastic filmmakers. But as someone who doesn’t have kids… It’s all geared towards kids in a way, right? You know? There’s going to be times when I forget. I’ll look at one of those things, as an adult with no kids, and I’ll think, ‘Oh, this isn’t for me.'”
However, Rogen, in a display of honesty, has made it clear that, from his point of view, ‘The Boys’ wouldn’t exist without the Marvel Universe.
“Honestly, without Marvel, ‘The Boys’ would not have existed nor would it be interesting. I am aware of this. I think that if only Marvel were there [en el mercado] it would be bad. One example I always cite is, there’s a point in history where a bunch of filmmakers got together, like, ‘Do you think we’ll ever make a movie that isn’t another Western? They’re all westerns! Westerns rule the fucking cinema! If he doesn’t have a hat and a gun and a horse cart, people aren’t going to go see him.'”
Finally, the filmmaker has created a dividing line between what it considers “audiovisual entertainment” and “cinema”which could sound like an attack to some and contrasts with the more or less conciliatory tone of his previous statements.
“The situation, sadly, is that we now have two separate fields: There is international audiovisual entertainment, and there is cinema. They still coexist from time to time, but that is becoming rarer. And I fear that the financial domination of one is being used to marginalize and even minimize the existence of the other”.