Viggo Mortensen has criticised Amazon’s decision to release his film Thirteen Lives straight to streaming, describing it as “shameful”.
The 2022 film told the story of the heroic rescue of 12 members of a Thai youth football team and their coach from an underground cave system. Mortensen played Richard Stanton, one of the cavers who proved pivotal in the operation.
It received a limited theatrical release before being fast-tracked to Amazon Prime Video, despite a cast that also included Colin Farrell and Joel Edgerton, and generally positive reviews.
Speaking to Vanity Fair, Mortensen gave his clear view on that decision, noting that studio MGM had intended to release it in “many, many, many thousands of theatres” due to its positive test screenings.
Then Amazon bought MGM, initially promised to respect the deal that MGM had made with [director] Ron Howard, and then they went back on that. Basically you saw that movie for a week in Chicago, New York and LA, London, and that was that.
“Then you had the streaming, which I thought was really sad. It’s a really well-shot movie.”
“But they figured it would be more cost-effective – i.e., they would make more money – if they didn’t have to bother with spending money on promoting it and putting in theatres and sharing that money with theatres, frankly. That’s what it comes down to. To me, it’s greed.”
“I think it was shameful what they did,” he added.
In a three-star review of Thirteen Lives, NME wrote: “This isn’t quite enough to justify a hefty 147-minute runtime, but there’s no denying that [director Ron] Howard does justice to all involved, including two Thai drivers who were tragically killed in the mission. Still, for a film about feats of next-level bravery, Thirteen Lives is a little too cautious to really soar.”
Earlier this week, Mortensen also took aim at major movie franchises, which he described as “predictable” and “not usually well-written”.
When asked why he had not taken part in any such series since The Lord Of The Rings, he said: “I don’t really look for or avoid any kind of genre or any size budget. I just look for interesting stories. It doesn’t matter to me what the genre is or what the budget is or who’s making them. I would never do a movie just because so-and-so is directing it. It has to be about the story. And if I think I’m right for the character, that always comes first.”
“That goes for franchises,” he continued. “If somebody came to me with X movie, the third part or the ninth part, and I thought it was a great character and I wanted to play that character and I thought I had something to contribute, I’d do it. I’m not against it.
“But they’re not usually that good. I mean, to me, they’re not usually that well-written. They’re kind of predictable. I mean, of course, there’s always the issue of if I run out of money.”
It did not stop him from including an easter egg referencing The Lord Of The Rings in his recent directorial effort The Dead Don’t Hurt.