Dunkirk’s Christopher Nolan slams Netflix for its ‘mindless’ streaming policy

Dunkirk director Christopher Nolan has slammed Netflix for its “mindless” policy of streaming films as soon as they’re released.

The acclaimed British filmmaker criticised the popular streaming service for its “bizarre aversion” to supporting theatrical films, insisting that they were “missing an opportunity”.

“Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films,” he told IndieWire.

“They have this mindless policy of everything having to be simultaneously streamed and released, which is obviously an untenable model for theatrical presentation.”

Nolan added: “So they’re not even getting in the game, and I think they’re missing a huge opportunity.”

The Dark Knight director went on to say that Amazon had the right idea, giving cinemas a significant window to show the film exclusively before adding it to their service.

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

Nolan insisted that he wasn’t undermining Netflix’s creativity and the quality of the content, but said that they were using “leverage’” against cinemas.

“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 theatres,” he said. “It’s so pointless. I don’t really get it.”

He went on to say that he would never direct a film for Netlix, saying: “Well, why would you? If you make a theatrical film, it’s to be played in theaters.”