'Maze Runner: The Death Cure' director thinks the Disney-Fox acquisition is 'sad' (exclusive)
Marvel fans might be happy about Disney’s acquisition of 20th Century Fox but not everyone is too excited about the purchase.
One of those being Wes Ball, the director of the Maze Runner franchise (a Fox property) who will see the final instalment, The Death Cure, in cinemas this week.
Yahoo Movies UK caught up with the filmmaker todiscuss the new film, his fast tracked career path and how the Disney-Fox acquisition might affect his own deal with the latter studio.
YM: So with other franchises, like the Divergent series, there was petered out interest. Were you worried with this final instalment it might not generate as much fanfare?
WB: Sure yeah, but it’s ultimately out of my control, all we can really do is approach it as we want to see this thing come to an end, in the most spectacular fashion as we can and do for the fans a proper send off to a story that we all really, really love.
YM: Are you happy to just get it out now so there is something else you can movie onto?
WB: It’s fun that we got to see this through until the end. Each movie is not just a sequel, it is part of a whole, you know, these three movies together, they exist, they belong together. Now it’s off to new things.
YM: These were your first feature films, you did short films before that. Do you think that if you were a woman or a person of colour that you might have been given that same shot?
WB: It’s crazy, and honestly I get it. There are a lot of male directors in the world. It’s crazy for me to have this opportunity. I had done nothing before these movies, but ultimately I had made this little short it opened up a door of opportunity there, to win that opportunity and I came in prepared, I knew what I wanted that first movie to be like, I had the artwork there, I fought for that opportunity, so I do’t know.
I hope that’s not the case anymore, certainly there’s a great movement happening right now, seeing more diversity with movies and stuff. It’s not lost on me how lucky I am to have this opportunity to do these movies, you know.
YM: So in 2016 you signed a first look, three-year deal with Fox but this year there’s the Disney acquisition. Has that change anything for you?
WB: It won’t change anything for me, we’ll see what happens. Those are two gigantic ships that are moving along so they’re not going to steer very quickly! It’s going to take a little time for that transition to happen, of course it has to be approved, it probably will. I do think it’s a little sad that we’ve lost a famous studio essentially, we’ll see, maybe it will survive under the Disney umbrella but it doesn’t change anything for me.
The beauty of us as filmmakers and actors is that they’ll always need content and we’re the content makers. I certainly hope they take on the people at Fox, they have some great people that I got to meet and work with, the president at the studio and everything, and I hope that those relationships do continue.
YM: Obviously that opens up so many opportunities for franchises and now that you have that experience could you see yourself doing a Star Wars or MCU film?
I grew up on Star Wars they’re practically the reason why I wanted to make movies. There are a handful of movies that I look to and keep on revisiting just to conjure up that excitement for making movies and Star Wars is one of them. I actually wasn’t a comic book kid so I didn’t grow up on the Marvel stuff. I certainly appreciate them.
I don’t know what’s next, there’s certainly something fun about starting franchises rather than coming onto franchises that already exist [because] you’re kind of tied up with doing things a certain way to fit into a longer trajectory. There’s something fun about doing things that are brand new.
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