#martin scorcese

Hot take, but I unironically think that Scorcese and filmmakers like him could do an excellent cinematic universe with their sorts of films.

It would be, like, something that starts out as a sort of “In another time, another place” setup like Streets of Fire, but then over these very different films there’s a bunch of different links implying a shared alternate history and the way the actions in one film shape the world in another.

I was thinking about this one article that joked about two movies being in the same “cinematic universe” because Al Capone showed up, with the joke being that it’s because the “shared universe” was the history of Our World, but I unironically think that could be how you do a Cinematic Universe with Scorcese’s type of films except it’s not Our World, and that would be a genuinely interesting metafictional storytelling technique.

I mean, heck, from what I recall Quentin Tarantino sorta subtly does that with his films, tho in this case it would perhaps be more extensive…

…And before anyone makes fun of me, the point was not to dunk on Scorcese’s comments wrt that, because I think his gripes are good points, but to say that the storytelling technique that is the “cinematic universe” has so much more potential beyond being a vehicle for monopolization/branding, and that potential is currently being wasted.