“I do think we have to sort of fight back at this
practice of overwhelming the market with the
blockbuster,” Martin Scorsese, whose gangster
epic “The Irishman” was bankrolled by Netflix
after all the major studios passed, said in an
interview earlier this summer.
The franchise films and sequels have far from
receded. On tap in the coming months are
“Frozen 2” (Nov. 22), “Joker” (Oct. 4) “Maleficent 2:
Mistress of Evil” (Oct. 18) “Terminator: Dark Fate”
(Nov. 1), “Charlie’s Angels” (Nov. 15) and “Star
Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” (Dec. 20).
But many of the season’s most anticipated
movies — “Ford v Ferrari” (Nov. 15), “The
Irishman” (Nov. 1), the Brad Pitt space adventure
“Ad Astra” (Sept. 20), Marielle Heller’s “A Beautiful
Day in the Neighborhood” (Nov. 22), with
Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers — will be seeking
audiences as much as they are awards.
Some are aiming to chart a new way forward
for movies by not just relying on throwback
thrills but literally turning back the clock.
“The Irishman,” which Netflix has shelled out a
reported $200 million to make, features digitally
“de-aged” versions of Robert De Niro and Al
Pacino. In Ang Lee’s “Gemini Man” (Oct. 11), Will
Smith, playing an assassin, faces off with a clone
of himself, 25 years younger.
Lee, who experimented with 3-D on “Life of
Pi” and high-frame rates on “Billy Lynn’s Long
Halftime Walk,” believes the evolution of digital
cinema is the future.
“You have to change the whole ecosystem,
change what it is to go into a theater,”
says Lee, whose latest is in 3-D and filmed
at 120 frames-per-second, rather than 24.