Christopher Nolan on the “danger” of streaming-only films: “It will need to be fixed”

nme.com:

Christopher Nolan has spoken about the “danger” of films only being available via streaming platforms, stressing that he believes in the ongoing importance of physical media.Speaking to The Washington Post, Nolan expanded on recent comments he made while introducing a screening of his film Oppenheimer, when he urged fans to buy the Blu-ray version, “so no evil streaming service can come steal it from you.”In the new interview, he clarified that he was joking in describing them as “evil”, but he did elaborate that the susceptibility of films disappearing from streaming platforms does concern him.“There is a danger these days that if things only exist in the streaming version, they do get taken down,” he said. “They come and go — as do broadcast versions of films, so my films will play on HBO or whatever, they’ll come and go.”“But the home video version is the thing that can always be there, so people can always access it.

And since the 1980s, as filmmakers, we’ve taken that for granted, and now we have to make sure that there’s a way that that can continue to happen, if not the physical media.”“The danger I’m talking about with a filmmaker’s film just sort of disappearing from streaming one day and then maybe not coming back or not coming back for a long period of time, that’s not an intentional conspiracy,” he continued.“That’s just a way that with the particular licensing agreements, the way things are evolving.

So it’s something worth pointing out because it will need to be fixed, but I’m very confident that it will be.”While introducing the film in Los Angeles on Monday (November 13), he said: “Obviously Oppenheimer has been quite a ride for us and now it is time for me to release a home version of the film.