Why Olivier Assayas imagined his remake of Irma Vep as a series rather than a feature film

The choice to revisit "Irma Vep" in a mini-series rather than a movie was not just an artistic decision. Assayas acknowledged that this was the only way his project would be produced. It would have been "impossible" to secure funding for a cinematic reimagining of "Irma Vep," the director told the Los Angeles Times. "No one would have funded it."

"We are in a moment of very profound transformation of what we call cinema", declared the director. The original film was already alluding to adapting the cinematic past to fit the media landscape of the present, but the miniseries takes that theme to another level. "It wouldn't make sense" to make it into a feature film, he explained, because it wouldn't have accurately reflected the way cinema has changed.

Nevertheless, Assayas is concerned about the future of cinema. “There is very little room for auteur cinema or independent cinema in the way things seem to be going at the moment,” he warned. "The money isn't there. The distribution formats aren't there. So it's a moment of introspection on what cinema will be."

As an author himself, he uses the HBO series to allay some of his fears about the future of cinema. 'Irma Vep' may answer some of Assayas' questions about movie direction - for better or worse.