German filmmaker Werner Herzog has given his “blessing” to pirates who want to download his films online.
The director, who also acts and will appear in the forthcoming Star Wars television series The Mandalorian, called piracy a “successful form of distribution” and expressed his reluctant support of Torrent users at Switzerland’s film festival Visions in Nyon.
¨Piracy has been the most successful form of distribution worldwide,” said Herzog after being told by Ukranian producer Illia Gladshtein he was only able to find his films on illegal download sites.
Herzog continued: ”If someone like you steals my films through the internet or whatever, fine, you have my blessing”
The director, who has directed over 60 films including Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, the Wrath of God and Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, stated it’s now easier to find his films online.
¨Now you can find them on the internet, on Amazon, as Blu-Rays or DVDs,” he said. “I am very happy about this because all of a sudden most of the requests and observations I receive now come from 15-year-olds who bombard me [with] questions of ’why can’t we see this or that film?”
