Dunkirk's Christopher Nolan: Netflix uses creative freedom as 'bizarre leverage against shutting down cinemas'

'Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films'

Dunkirk director Christopher Nolan has criticised what he sees as Netflix's "mindless policy" when it comes to streaming its original films the same time they are released in theatres.

“Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films,” Nolan told Indiewire this week. "They have this mindless policy of everything having to be simultaneously streamed and released, which is obviously an untenable model for theatrical presentation. So they’re not even getting in the game, and I think they’re missing a huge opportunity."

Nolan is perhaps the most fierce and certainly the best-known defender of the theatrical experience and proponent of shooting on film in Hollywood.

He was quick to point out that not all streaming services are to blame.

"You can see that Amazon is very clearly happy to not make that same mistake," he said. "The theaters have a 90-day window. It’s a perfectly usable model. It’s terrific."

Talk to anyone who has worked with Netflix and they'll tell you how wonderful it is to be afforded a level of creative freedom that traditional studios and production companies might not.

Nolan can see this, but thinks it is coming at a cost.

“I think the investment that Netflix is putting into interesting filmmakers and interesting projects would be more admirable if it weren’t being used as some kind of bizarre leverage against shutting down theaters,” he said. “It’s so pointless. I don’t really get it.”

Consequently, when Nolan was asked if he would ever work with Netflix on a film that a studio wasn't willing to back, he was succinct: “No

"Well, why would you? If you make a theatrical film, it’s to be played in theaters."

Netflix's unorthodox release strategies have ruffled feathers of late, with cinema chains in South Korea refusing to show Okja unless the theatre-only window was widened.