Ridley Scott Regrets Choosing to Direct Alien: Covenant Over Blade Runner: 2049

[SiL]

I don't doubt that Scott is still a great artist and cinema will be worse off without him.

What I do object to is this notion that he's the best person - or even simply the right person - for the Alien franchise now because of Alien, a film Scott would never make today.

[aliens13]

I don't doubt that Scott is still a great artist and cinema will be worse off without him.

What I do object to is this notion that he's the best person - or even simply the right person - for the Alien franchise now because of Alien, a film Scott would never make today.

Ridley Scott already had his chance with Prometheus and Covenant, although I liked some things of Covenant he failed. I think that he should take a step to the side and let that other people try to make what did Alien great. Let's see what happens with Romulus

[oduodu]

He s 85. I think that was his chance. His last chance. Still glad it got made.

[Still Collating...]

I think Covenant was a victim of failing as both a Prometheus Sequel and an Alien prequel, it tried to be both and just couldn't do it, in my opinion.

True, but it wasn't Scott's call. It was the studio, wasn't it?

My take is that he's too easily swayed by bad ideas and writers. It seems interesting to him, but it's never thought through completely. A lot of work is put into his stuff, but the logic and reasoning of things doesn't quite add up in his Prequels mostly.

But it's his responsibility and taste that governs the final result. And I find it hard to believe a man of his age and experience can't recognize or find a good script. Saying that a Director that's that hands on as he is, to have a blind spot for good scripts is baffling to me. And he was very hands on with the editing of Prometheus and cut out so much interesting stuff, he had no regrets about that. If he's great for visuals, than just have him be a the Visual Director or the Producer of a project.

IMO a Director should understand stories and writing better. And if he doesn't, he should've been aware of that by now.

Saying this as someone who really likes Prometheus and Covenant! But also hate parts of those movies and the fact that so many better ideas have been thrown around to Scott before and weren't capitalized on.     

[Kimarhi]

Scott just wanted a chance to kill another franchise and is sad he didn't get it. 

His time is over.  His input into the series should be over.  Especially after he put the poor dog down with a bullet to the head in the Alien series with covenant's BO. 

People keep acting like his stamp on a sci-fi project means something. 

I literally groan when I see his name pop up now. 

[littlesprout]

His time is over.  His input into the series should be over.  Especially after he put the poor dog down with a bullet to the head in the Alien series with covenant's BO. 

People keep acting like his stamp on a sci-fi project means something. 

I literally grown when I see his name pop up now. 

I do concur.

Especially how most Alien fans still obsess over Scott. He could literally say "I f***ing hate alien" and spit in fans faces and the second he wants to make a new alien film people will allow him. Strictly within the alien universe I absolutely hate to see his name tied to alien after the disrespect and lack of care he has shown the franchise. I can find the good in both the prequel films, but still can't believe for the life of me that's what we got.

He should have made Prometheus as a totally separate film that fans could speculate and say it's in the alien universe, as some do with blade runner.

[TheBATMAN]

I think he just has too much influence on the writing side of things. You could see it in Prometheus when Jon Spaits said he'd turn his pages in and Ridley Scott would randomly say 'what if there is an orrey?' So he would then throw his script out and rewrite just to incorporate what Scott wanted.

[oduodu]

It was roundabout this point that Fox brought Lindelof in . There are rumours that wasn't what Scott wanted. Hence the  Prometheus script not the result of Scott ONLY OR PRIMARILY.

If said rumour is true.

suspicion

[Samhain13]

I think a lot of alien fans regret that too

[XENOMORPHOSIS]

Dunno if they'll ever provide closure resolving the prequel era transitioning the storythreads into the original Alien, Hope the series overall finds new life and delivers for fans, a year to go for the release of Alien Romulus.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

I think he just has too much influence on the writing side of things.

You could see it in Prometheus when Jon Spaits said he'd turn his pages in and Ridley Scott would randomly say 'what if there is an orrey?' So he would then throw his script out and rewrite just to incorporate what Scott wanted

That was the case on Alien and Blade Runner too. Not many people complaining about those two flicks. It is what Scott refers to as "evolving" the film.

When Scott hired David Peoples and "fired" Hampton Fancher, Peoples took one look at the Blade Runner script and told Scott he didn't think he could improve on it. Scott told him not to worry because he would be telling him exactly what to write.

The difference here is that the Prometheus script was not very good at all. None of Spaiths drafts were good and Lindelof was probably the worst person to hire and try and get it up to scratch.

With The Martian and The Last Duel, Scott landed two great scripts and made RT 90%+ films.

That's why you always see when Ingwar or I start a new Ridley Scott film thread, the first comment we make is always, "lets hope the script is good".

[SiL]

That was the case on Alien and Blade Runner too.

Except back then people could still tell him no.

Ridley wanting to have the Alien bite someone's head off and talk in their voice would probably make it to test screening these days.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Except back then people could still tell him no.

Ridley wanting to have the Alien bite someone's head off and talk in their voice would probably make it to test screening these days.

Yeah, I mentioned that in an earlier post in this thread as well.

But you also need to counterbalance that with the fact that with Prometheus and Covenant, Scott was now involved with major franchise movies which inevitably comes with a lot of studio restraints. We've seen several instances where the studio overrode him on Prometheus and Alien Covenant. For good or for worse.

He should have made Prometheus as a totally separate film that fans could speculate and say it's in the alien universe, as some do with blade runner.

It seems it was supposed to be something like that at one stage, but likely the studio (Tom Rothman essentially), steered it back into Alien franchise territory.

[Enjoy]

Not sure why he made Exodus instead of another alien or blade runner

[Sgarden91]

I can understand why. He was forced to make changes to Covenant that he never wanted to and he's always been proud of BR. I'm not sure I'd prefer it, but I think he'd have done a better editing job and trimming the fat a little bit.