Disney boss Bob Iger plots meeting with Martin Scorsese after his 'nasty' Marvel comments

Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney, is reportedly planning a meeting with Martin Scorsese, following the furore around the director's comments about the Marvel movies.

In an interview with Empire said back in October, ahead of the release of his movie The Irishman, Scorsese said that he didn't consider the movies to be real 'cinema'.

Read more: Scorsese’s next movie set for March, 2020

Expanded on his comments, he then compared the films to 'theme parks'.

“I don’t see them. I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema,” Scorsese said. “Honestly, the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks. It isn’t the cinema of human beings trying to convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being.”

But according to Time magazine, which has just named Iger 'businessperson of the year', Iger is now planning to meet with Scorsese.

In the interview, he calls Scorsese's comments 'nasty', and 'not fair to the people who are making the movies'.

“If Marty Scorsese wants to be in the business of taking artistic risk, all power to him,” he goes on. “It doesn’t mean that what we’re doing isn’t art.”

Read more: Scorsese’s comments ‘unfortunate’ says Marvel boss

'In true Hollywood fashion, Iger says his people and Marty’s people are arranging a get-together', the magazine adds.

The comments from Scorsese were backed by some – including Francis Ford Coppola – but condemned by others, from Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige, to Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman.

“You’ve got to think about when he’s saying it. He’s saying it when he’s possibly campaigning for an award. He’s saying it at a time when he’s making a Netflix movie, so that’s how eyes get on his film, and it’s not going to be in the cinemas - it’s not going to be seen the best way,” Boseman told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Iger is currently celebrating becoming the first movie studio to make more than $10 billion at the box office in a single year.

When factoring in the movies made by Fox, which Disney acquired earlier this year, it made a staggering $11.94 billion thanks to movies like Avengers: Endgame, Captain Marvel, Toy Story 4 and The Lion King remake.