New LA Times interview with Ridley Scott on Alien.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Not really much we don't already know. Seems he is still keen on making another prequel:

"Alien" director Ridley Scott joined Times film critic Justin Chang on Thursday for a conversation about the film, casting Sigourney Weaver in it, and his long, expansive career. The filmmaker, who is currently in Los Angeles, said that for him, quarantine-time has been "a great opportunity to get all those unfinished scripts finished."

The central role of Ellen Ripley — also portrayed by Weaver in three subsequent sequels — was originally written as a man, and Scott talked about how the gender flip came to be, along with how Weaver came to be cast.

"I think the idea actually came from Alan Ladd Jr.," Scott said. "I think it was Alan Ladd [then president of 20th Century Fox] who said, 'Why can't Ripley be a woman?' And there was a long pause, that at that moment I never thought about it. I thought, why not, it's a fresh direction, the ways I thought about that. And away we went.

"And I found Sigourney by word of mouth. Somebody had been told that Siourney was on an off-Broadway stage doing something, that I should meet. And I did," Scott said. "And there it was, she was perfect. In terms of scale, size, intelligence, her acting is just fantastic. And so it was made for her, really."

The film's notorious chest-burster scene, in which an alien creature emerges from within actor John Hurt's chest, is now among the classic scenes in modern horror cinema. It was shot with multiple cameras because Scott could only really perform the full effect once, "because once I blew blood all over that set, there was no cleaning it up." Hurt knelt so that only his head was visible above a hole in a table and a false torso was placed to meet his neck.

"I kept it very much from the actors and I kept the actual little creature, whatever that would be, from the actors. I never wanted them to see it," Scott said. "Remember there was no digital effects in those days at all. I'm going to somehow bring that creature out of his chest."

The relatively simple effect of having Hurt under the table obviously worked, as Scott recalled, "I remember Stanley Kubrick called me up saying, 'How'd you do that?' He said, 'I've run it through slowly, I can't see the cut.' And I just said that much. He said, 'OK, I got it. I got it, it worked.'"

The movie that "Alien" defeated in Week 4's final Ultimate Summer Movie Showdown round was the first "Star Wars" film from 1977, directed by George Lucas. Scott recalled the influence that movie had on him at the time, noting, "It opened the gate for me feeling comfortable that science fiction was no longer silly fantasy but actually had a reality to it. ... So I was blown away. I think I was depressed for a month when I saw it, 'cause I thought, 'How on Earth could he have done that?'

"My hat still comes off to George," Scott said of Lucas for the first "Star Wars." "Without question his was by far the best, still."

Although subsequent "Alien" sequels were undertaken by directors James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Scott returned to the world of the story with 2012's "Prometheus" and 2017's "Alien: Covenant." And he may not yet be done.

"I still think there's a lot of mileage in 'Alien,' but I think you'll have to now re-evolve," Scott said. "What I always thought when I was making it, the first one, why would a creature like this be made and why was it traveling in what I always thought was a kind of war-craft, which was carrying a cargo of these eggs. What was the purpose of the vehicle and what was the purpose of the eggs? That's the thing to question — who, why, and for what purpose is the next idea, I think."

More at: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2020-05-29/ultimate-summer-movie-showdown-ridley-scott-alien

[Nightmare Asylum]

Thanks for the link, gonna have to give the whole interview a watch later on. Their George Miller interview last week was very good.

[j0nesy]

maybe he will get the chance to finish his trilogy with disney/20th century studios...

[Drukathi]

I hope. Maybe right after The Last Duel.

[426Buddy]

I want him to finish the prequels but everyone better be ready for a full on explanation of the derelict on LV-426 and how it relates to David. It will most likely be something fans will hate.

[Evanus]

Someone should ask him directly what's happening with the third prequel.

[Janek]

Someone should ask him directly what's happening with the third prequel.

Definitely, always the same information rolling about.

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

I hope. Maybe right after The Last Duel.

Looks like the Gucci murder movie is next up for him. Maybe after that?

Someone should ask him directly what's happening with the third prequel.

I think he'll just go on about "evolving" and "re-evolving" again without actually saying much. 

[Evanus]

I think he'll just go on about "evolving" and "re-evolving" again without actually saying much. 

Yeah, you're probably right. Such is the way of Riddlez 

[Immortan Jonesy]

I want him to finish the prequels but everyone better be ready for a full on explanation of the derelict on LV-426 and how it relates to David. It will most likely be something fans will hate.

If the movie is well written, I don't think I'm going to have a problem with something like that honeslty, even if the final answer is "controversial" so to speak. I think Prometheus could have been objectively good with everything it had (no Aliens, human Space Jockeys, ancient alien shit, etc) if only it had been well written and better edited.

It took time for the concept to grown up in my head, But there is almost no retcon in the prequels. The Space Jockey is just part of a film set and as such is totally irrelevant to the Alien storyline, not to mention that none of the sequels offer canonical material about them. All we have is an expanded universe. In some cases somewhat cringy. But there is nothing. The fossilization thing is just the Dallas point of view, and Dan O'Bannon's original ideas are behind-the-scenes stuff. Almost everything is a recontextualization and the closest thing to a retcon is the difference in size of the Jockey.  So yes. You find no retcon in the Engineers, nor in the unexpected origin of the Alien. What we have are answers or concepts that we do not like (although I know that there are people who do like it), but beyond that bad writing is the only true sin of these prequels.

[Ingwar]

Interview with Scott starts at 8:44. It's almost one hour long!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuypcTJ1IHk

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

Anything new that's not mentioned in the text summary above?

[Ingwar]

Cannot tell because I haven't finished listening yet

[𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯]

[Ingwar]

He talks about finishing unfinished scripts, Lucas' Star Wars, importance of good casting, Sigourney Weaver, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, his mother, G.I. Jane, Giger, legacy of Alien, criticism and why he doesn't read reviews, returning to Alien universe, Kubrick and 2001, Exodus: Gods and Kings, Thelma & Louise, AI. Basically there is probably nothing we haven't heard before.