Roger Moore's Son Says Hollywood Has Too Much TikTok and Too Many Comic-Book Remakes
Actor Geoffrey Moore tells Fox News Digital that studios are leaning on recycled franchises when audiences want stronger stories and sharper dialogue.
Some of the sharpest criticism of today's movies comes from people who grew up on a set.
Geoffrey Moore, the son of the late James Bond star Roger Moore, told Fox News Digital that modern films have become too reliant on recycled comic-book material and big-budget spectacle, while originality and meaningful dialogue have taken a back seat. He was speaking about his new British spy thriller "Knightfall."
"I think that today, it's too much TikTok," Moore said. "A person will have a conversation with you, and it's the conversation that he read or heard on TikTok, as opposed to actually having read Hemingway and knows what he's talking about." He argued that "it's important that the art of storytelling maintains the culture," and said there are "too many studio executive heads deciding what's right, as opposed to what people want to hear or people should hear and see."
On the superhero cycle, he was direct: "I would like to see more culture in films, as opposed to the regurgitation of these comics." He also thinks the tone has gone sour. "And everything's so negative. Oh, my goodness," he said. In his view the fix is not more explosions. "The storyline has to be strong. Good dialogue, good storywriting are key. You don't have to have constant action to keep the person's attention going."
"Knightfall," per Fox, follows a former spy catcher who must work with his estranged daughter to avert a homeland security bloodbath and survive a terrifying home invasion. Moore plays a character named Hugh. He said the film was deliberately kept short, since modern audiences may not have the patience for a long saga. "You can't sit through a three-hour movie," he said.
For Moore, the project is also personal. He grew up around the entertainment business as the son of one of its most famous screen spies and is now playing a spy himself, at about the age his father was when he made his final Bond film. He said he did not start out as a lifelong actor: "just because you're related to someone in the entertainment industry, it doesn't make me a part of the entertainment industry."
Plenty of moviegoers will recognize the complaint. Whether studios will listen is another matter.