Bob Iger Planning to Meet With Martin Scorsese Over Marvel Comments

Like many a fanboy on Twitter, Bob Iger hasn’t gotten over Martin Scorsese’s comments about Marvel movies.

In a new story in Time magazine, in which the Disney CEO was named “Businessperson of the Year,” Iger says that the famed filmmaker’s comments about his company’s superhero movies were “nasty” and “not fair to the people who are making the movies.” He adds, “If Marty Scorsese wants to be in the business of taking artistic risk, all power to him. It doesn’t mean that what we’re doing isn’t art.”

Iger then said that his and Scorsese’s representatives were planning a meeting between himself and the Irishman director.

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This is only the latest installment in the ongoing saga over Scorsese’s remark that Marvel movies are “not cinema.” Filmmakers including Kevin Feige, James Gunn and Joss Whedon have all defended the studio for which they have made films, while Iger previously weighed in during an interview with BBC Radio. “I don’t think he’s ever seen a Marvel film,” he said. “Anyone who has seen a Marvel film could not in all truth make that statement.”

The protracted saga has continued as Scorsese has been defended by other filmmakers, including helmers Jon Favreau and Francis Ford Coppola. Meanwhile, Scorsese has stood by his remarks, while speaking at the London Film Festival and in a New York Times opinion story. In the latter, the director said that today’s filmmaking is “market-researched, audience-tested, vetted, modified, revetted and remodified until they’re ready for consumption.”

Scorsese’s latest film doesn’t seem to be taking a hit from the pro-Marvel contingent: Netflix on Monday said that The Irishman had been viewed by 26 million households within its first four weeks.