Hollywood afraid of taking risks, says ‘Hole 3D’ director

London: Hollywood director Joe Dante has accused US movie bosses of being scared to finance original films and said that he’s proud to complete his latest movie, ‘The Hole 3D’.

The horror movie, aimed at 12-year-olds and up with relatively unknown cast, which released this weekend, is the first feature the director``s made for six years but the gap was not intentional. "You look at a film-maker`s filmography and there``s often these large gaps. And you think, ``Gosh, was he in rehab? What happened? He doesn`t work?`It``s not because he wasn`t working. He was working. Sometimes you get as far as casting them, you get as far as finding locations and then all of a sudden the money dries up," the BBC quoted Dante as saying. "The business has changed now. In the old days they would come to me and say, ``Do you want to direct this?`` and if I said ``Yes``, they already had the money and we`d make the movie. But now, they say, oh great, we`ll put your name on it and we`ll go out and look for money,” the filmmaker added. Dante admits he`s juggling a variety of movies at the moment and that it can be a frustrating process. "I have a number of pictures floating around now in town, saying ``Well, you know if we can get this actor and this other actor and this tax break over here, then we can put all these elements together and make a movie. That``s why you``re not seeing as many movies made,” the director explained further about the altering trends in the industry. As for the films that do manage to get funding, 1980s classic ‘Gremlins’ director senses that Hollywood is playing it safe. "There`s a huge appetite right now at the studios for re-making pictures and doing TV shows and doing titles that people have already seen before. Even if they never saw the movie, it sort of sounds similar. I think that`s kind of a cop out frankly. I think they`re just afraid of doing something that`s risky and new," he concluded.