Ridley Scott on the Alien franchise

[SiL]

By all accounts he didn't pull off Star Wars, his editor did. He's also managed to get some absolutely awful performances out of some great actors.

He's a much better producer than a director.

[BigDaddyJohn]

Lucas's a good producer.

[SM]

He is way, WAY beyond Zemeckis.

I'd argue he's way, maybe not WAY beyond Lucas too.

I was more looking at it in terms of impact and influence on filmmaking.

Zemeckis isn't even in the same sport as Spielberg, Lucas or Cameron.

[kwisatz]

Zemeckis actually reminds me though Ridley still has no Oscar lul

Not that it matters much

[Xiggz456]

I think part of the reason Prometheus did so well financially was that it released during the 3D revival craze (early 2010's)and those tickets were hella expensive compared to 2D screenings at the time. Don't think it would've been as successful without the 3D spectacle draw which is somewhat evident by Covenant's diminished returns as Covvie didn't get the 3D treatment (likely because by 2017 3D had kind of fallen by the way side).

[Kimarhi]

I'd argue that Prometheus sold so well because it was tied into Alien.  Scott knew what he was doing there, but unfortunately for him, it was tied to Alien...........so he hated having to revisit the titular creature after it was absent.  That was a two edged sword.  Cut both ways.  Sold tickets because of its tied into universe, but anchored him down to said franchise with the Alien.

Though maybe he should've held off for a sequel to Prometheus in the vein of Prometheus, and pushed for somebody else to make the Alien movie the studio wanted with his blessing like he did with Fed and Romulus. 

[Nightmare Asylum]

Different article, but I'm using this thread because I don't think this anecdote from the Gladiator II press quite warrants a new thread of its own:

I read an anecdote by David Fincher. He was on the set of Alien 3, which of course was his first film, and he was very young. And you came on set smoking a cigar, and you asked him how things are going.  He said, 'Not good, Ridley, not good'.

He was sitting on a tin can! [Laughs] I said, 'How are you doing, dude?' He said, 'I'm in Alien hell.'

He'd been doing it for ten months by then. There were too many cooks in the kitchen. David, at that moment, hadn't got that experience. I had so much experience with so many commercials, and by then I had offices in London, Paris and New York. I'm not a learner. So when they thought I was a new boy on the block going to Hollywood – nah. I knew more than most of them. But David got it early, so he hadn't benefited from the experience I had.

But he did alright – he's doing fine.

Oh yeah, he came out on top in the end.

But they had all the visual effects. We had no visual effects [on Alien]. Not any. My Alien's a guy in a rubber suit. [Fincher's] got six running around the walls. So in a way, that's also a problem – you've got too much to play with. You have to narrow your palette down.

https://filmstories.co.uk/news/ridley-scott-interview-gladiator-ii-alien-3-tennis-art-and-baboons/

Not sure what made me laugh harder, Fincher's "I'm in Alien hell" or Scott's "[Fincher's] got six running around the walls."

[CANNON]

Different article, but I'm using this thread because I don't think this anecdote from the Gladiator II press quite warrants a new article of its own:

I read an anecdote by David Fincher. He was on the set of Alien 3, which of course was his first film, and he was very young. And you came on set smoking a cigar, and you asked him how things are going.  He said, 'Not good, Ridley, not good'.

He was sitting on a tin can! [Laughs] I said, 'How are you doing, dude?' He said, 'I'm in Alien hell.'

He'd been doing it for ten months by then. There were too many cooks in the kitchen. David, at that moment, hadn't got that experience. I had so much experience with so many commercials, and by then I had offices in London, Paris and New York. I'm not a learner. So when they thought I was a new boy on the block going to Hollywood – nah. I knew more than most of them. But David got it early, so he hadn't benefited from the experience I had.

But he did alright – he's doing fine.

Oh yeah, he came out on top in the end.

But they had all the visual effects. We had no visual effects [on Alien]. Not any. My Alien's a guy in a rubber suit. [Fincher's] got six running around the walls. So in a way, that's also a problem – you've got too much to play with. You have to narrow your palette down.

https://filmstories.co.uk/news/ridley-scott-interview-gladiator-ii-alien-3-tennis-art-and-baboons/

Not sure what made me laugh harder, Fincher's "I'm in Alien hell" or Scott's "[Fincher's] got six running around the walls."

ha both great, always fun reading these behind the scene quotes.

[Acidforblood75]

George lucas said years ago and I agree that once something is out in the public it no longer belongs to you solely. The public and the Alien fandom   who made this franchise successful should have a say. Scott doesn't own the franchise and should not be trying to lock up anything. Prometheus was boring and put me of watching covenant which I'm only watching now. Alien was a great movie but had a brilliant script. Take nothing away from what dan o bannon (rip) and Ronald shusett contributed to the success of the movie, not to mention the actors and musical score.

Scott shouldn't take sole credit. Add in the genius of giger too.

[Nightmare Asylum]

George lucas said years ago and I agree that once something is out in the public it no longer belongs to you solely.

George Lucas is also the first person to say that he made movies for himself, that he wanted to see. He literally built his company up in a way that allowed himself to do just that, without anyone being able to tell him "No."

The public and the Alien fandom   who made this franchise successful should have a say.

The "fandom" having a say sounds awful. A step even beyond "filmmaking by committee." Filmmakers should be the ones putting the work that they want to out there, and then if it finds a fanbase and connects with an audience, that's great.

Take nothing away from what dan o bannon (rip) and Ronald shusett contributed to the success of the movie, not to mention the actors and musical score.

Scott shouldn't take sole credit. Add in the genius of giger too.

Scott has never taken "sole credit." To this day, he's always the first one to cite the input of all of his collaborators.

This is from just this year, still citing many of his collaborators by name when chatting about the film.

[Acidforblood75]

I was just quoting what lucas said in an interview. Lucas did make movies for himself but he still admitted that bonce it's out in the public domain it takes on a life of its own. If you have issues with that take it up with him.

As for Scott taking sole credit maybe he isn't but sometimes he acts like he does. Certainly wanting to lockdown the franchise isn't a good look. Does he have that right? No i don't think so.

[Nightmare Asylum]

I have no issue to take up with Lucas. Love the man and his work. There's absolutely some good, even great, Star Wars stuff being made now in the post-Lucas era - but the core of Star Wars, to me, is intrinsically that to have come out of Lucas' time calling the shots.

As for Scott, his situation is obviously a different than Lucas' in that Scott didn't conceive of the Alien franchise the way that Lucas did Star Wars. He doesn't "own" it (though he is the one that undoubtedly made the film what it is; with anyone else at the helm at the time, I don't see us getting the masterpiece that is Alien in anything resembling the form that it exists in now), and a major part of the appeal of Alien as an ongoing franchise is the way that each filmmaker that comes in tends to really put their own stamp on it. Guys like Ridley Scott, James Cameron, David Fincher, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet are all such radically different filmmakers. That being said, I also don't take issue with Ridley Scott "locking down" this era of the franchise (Prometheus is an interesting mess, and I adore Covenant) and shepherding new voices like Fede Álvarez and Noah Hawley. Inevitably, there will come a time where we will be in a post-Scott world and the franchise will continue on beyond him (and Hell, even while Scott is still around and producing, we're getting visions that go against the grain of his ideas, given Hawley's comments about Scott's prequels), but while we have him around, I'm very happy to see him continuing to oversee the series to some extent or another. Would love it if he had one more film in the series, as a followup to Covenant, up his sleeve to personally direct as well.