Here is the rewritten article: The last five years have been transformative for cinema, with the impact of COVID, the streaming revolution, and the r
Here is the rewritten article:
The last five years have been transformative for cinema, with the impact of COVID, the streaming revolution, and the rise of AI technology. This is exactly why Empire decided to poll top filmmakers in Hollywood – and beyond – on what’s going on in the industry, and what it all means for movies. The result is a major new article, available to read in full in our Mickey 17 issue.
One of the hottest topics is the encroachment of AI, with the industry still figuring out how it could, should – or shouldn’t – be used in moviemaking. “It is not creative,” says Gina Prince-Bythewood, director of The Woman King. “It just takes from others’ creativity.” Sofia Coppola questions its capabilities beyond creating mere imagery: “It can be helpful, but I think you need a heart and soul to make art.” Reinaldo Marcus Green, director of Bob Marley: One Love and King Richard, sees its arrival as inevitable. “AI isn’t new,” he points out. “As is the premise of Moneyball, it’s adapt or die.” Jeremy Saulnier, director of Rebel Ridge, prefers to keep it real. “Film sets are electric because they are inhabited by living, breathing people with experience and ideas that, from time to time, are able to catch lightning in a bottle,” he says. “Fuck all that fake shit because, you know – for me? The action is the juice.”
George Miller, director of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, considers the state of the entire ecosystem to be “Darwinian,” but thinks there’ll always be a need for the big-screen experience. “We are hard-wired to gather in the sharing of stories,” he tells Empire. “I believe cinemas are, for the most part, doing everything they can…” Daniel Scheinert, director of the Oscar-winning director duo behind Everything Everywhere All At Once, wants to “encourage community” and “make theatres celebratory, social spaces that do more than shuffle you in and out and charge lots for popcorn.”
With streaming continuing to impact the Hollywood business model, Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire’s Adam Wingard sees it as “both” a blessing and a curse. “I’ve contributed to either side,” he says, “and I’ll always be in favor of the cinemas by a long shot, both as a filmmaker and fan. However, I can’t deny the great opportunities that streaming provides… If we released The Guest now, with streaming culture as it is, I believe it would be a much bigger deal.” Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids, sees streaming as “a blessing for filmmakers who simply want to get their movies made,” he says. “We’d all love to be making theatrical films with big releases but with the studios cutting back on their output, the streamers have really stepped up to let us tell our stories with real budgets.”
Contributors to Empire’s poll also shouted out the films that have blown them away in recent years. For Till director Chinonye Chukwu, that’s Jacques Audiard’s crime musical Emilia Pérez, about a mobster undergoing gender transition; Jurassic World’s Colin Trevorrow hailed Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (“There were huge ideas in the second film that knocked me sideways”); Gurinder Chadha chose road-trip documentary Will & Harper; Jeff Nichols, who this year released The Bikeriders, picked Godilla Minus One (“I found it completely immersive”); while Daniel Scheinert picked ultra-lo-fi comedy Hundreds Of Beavers (“That movie is the key to making theatres fun, and is the future of cinema, and blew me away”).
Evolving, collapsing, rebuilding – whatever the future of cinema is, there is hope in the next generation of filmmakers. “The future of cinema are the voices that have been excluded from cinema,” says Prince-Bythewood. “That is where you will find fresh, unique stories about characters and worlds we have not yet seen.” It’s not time for the end credits just yet.
Read Empire’s epic 12-page feature on the Future Of Cinema in the Mickey 17 issue, on sale Thursday 24 October. Pre-order a copy online here.
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