Finally, there’s someone that seems to hate post-credit scenes as much as your local multiplex staff. Maybe more.
Logan filmmaker James Mangold expressed his distaste for the practice while participating in a 2018 Writers Guild Association Beyond Words Panel on Thursday. He did not mince words in laying out his issues with the “f*cking embarrassing” trend and what it symbolizes to him. CinemaBlend has a transcription of the Walk the Line director’s comments about the types of movies he doesn’t want to make.
“The idea of making a movie that would f*cking embarrass me, that’s part of the anesthetizing of this country or the world. That’s further confirming what they already know and tying in with other f*cking products and selling them the next movie while you’re making this movie, and kind of all that shit that I find really f*cking embarrassing. Like, that audiences are actually asking for scenes in end credits when those scenes were first developed for movies that suck, so they put something extra at the end to pick up the scores when the movie couldn’t end right on its own f*cking feet.”
This would explain the lack of Logan end-credit scene, although Mangold did engage in the practice for The Wolverine. Mangold laments that post-credit scenes have been something that audiences crave.
“Now we’ve actually gotten audiences addicted to a f*cking bonus in the credits. It’s f*cking embarrassing. It means you couldn’t land your f*cking movie is what it means. Even if you got 100,000 Twitter addicts who are gambling on what f*cking scene is going to happen after the f*cking credits it’s still cheating. It’s just cheating, but there’s all sorts of bad habits like that that f*cking horrify me, man, that have become de rigueur in the way we make movies and I think the fear of being one of them that did that end then everyone’s patting me on the back and I feel like sh*t inside because I know I cheated, is probably the greatest thing that scares the sh*t out of me.”
Your mileage with Mangold’s viewpoint may vary, but it is interesting to hear a director take aim at audiences banking on post-credit scenes for entertainment. The bulk of fans of superhero films may consider those add-ons to be a treat rather than a cheat, but it might be hard to get Mangold’s words out of your brain when you catch the next post-credit bonus.
(Via CinemaBlend)