Ridley Scott reflects on Alien and Blade Runner
por Francesco Eunchae: Ridley Scott
Ridley Scott says he feels alive when directing and has no regrets about his career choices. He insists the 1979 film Alien remains the superior entry in the franchise, calling it the best by far, full stop, end of story. After declining a Blade Runner sequel, he was approached to work on Alien again before the series was discontinued for four years. He described collaborating with Damon Lindelof to write Prometheus as a return to the franchise's origins. Scott noted that Denis Villeneuve directed Blade Runner respectfully but felt the parts did not fully gel. He mentioned receiving negative criticism from Pauline Kael for the original Blade Runner. Scott revealed he wrote a Dune adaptation with Rudy Willitzer but ultimately stepped away from directing it. He recounted meeting Frank Herbert, who acknowledged George Lucas borrowed elements from Dune for Star Wars. Scott cited Star Wars as a seminal influence that changed his approach to filmmaking, leading to Alien.
Transcrição (en)
How the pleasure comes when you direct? What do you like? Because I feel alive. It makes me feel alive. Do you have some regrets, though, in your career? I mean, I know you wanted to make the sequel of Blade Runner that Denis Villeneuve did. And what happened was I had an incoming, because I think, Alien, you want to do Alien? I did the best one by far, full stop. End of the fucking story. Then they let it die. After four ages, they killed it. So I sat there thinking, I'm gonna bring it back. So I sat down with a very good writer, two guys, eventually ended up with Damon Lindelof, and we caught fire and wrote Prometheus. So I suddenly bring back where it all began. Then I thought that shook the cage a bit. Then I did the next one, Alien Covenant. So now it's up and running, okay? Blade Runner 2 film, Denis is a sweetheart, a very good man and very very good director I think somehow the parts worked but it didn quite gel Yeah Did you like Blade Runner 2 Yeah Good Good. Because to me, I like Blade Runner 1. The 50% loved it, 50% hated it. I got killed by Pauline Kael. Fuck you, Pauline. And Denny did a great job, and he's so respectful. He's a sweetheart. Now he's done the Dune things, which I think are fantastic. You tried to make a Dune. No, I stepped away. I wrote it with a guy called Rudy Willitzer, who had written Tulane Blacktop and Pat Garen, Billy the Kid. He wrote a very good adaptation of Dune. I met Frank Herbert and said, Frank, George stole pretty well everything for Star Wars from your book. He said, I know. I said, well, Tony. He said, too late. But Star Wars was seminal. So, and Star Wars changed my head in terms of how, what I should do next, so I did Alien.
