Does Ridley Scott receive too much credit for "Alien" ?

[Voodoo Magic]

^ It doesn't mean another director wouldn't have fought as hard. Many directors fought studios back then. Alas, ceative integrity carried so much more weight back then. (sigh)

[Naginata]

^ It's pretty unlikely, though. Let's also remember that Ridley Scott got the budget doubled.

[Voodoo Magic]

^ Highly unlikely is subjective. Unproven director John McTiernan fought for a new Predator design plus an increase in budget. Unproven writer/director James Cameron wouldnt let Terminator be directed other than him. Unproven Sly Stallone wouldn't allow any other actor star as Rocky.  Dan 'Obannon was even considering directing Alien.  And so on, a million times over. These fights happened all the time back then. It's easy to conceive more than one director would fight for the project. 

Either way, I am VERY HAPPY it turned out the way it did!

[whiterabbit]

I wonder when this topic really became a fan issue. Damn internet.

[Huntsman]

Watched Alien again yesterday at night, with someone who hadn't seen the movie before. It was a delight. They were sitting on the edge of their seat. What an incredible film this is.

[Voodoo Magic]

I wonder when this topic really became a fan issue. Damn internet.

If I think about it, I believe it started when Ridley began to take charge of Alien to be honest.. with the prequels, and Ridley deciding on what direction Alien should go, and declaring Alien should be on the same level of Star Wars and Star Trek, and sustainable. Basically, it started when Ridley took command of the Alien franchise, and the topic organically grew out of that. 

[Kane's other son]

Dan O' Bannon received too much credit for "Alien".

[oduodu]

Dan O' Bannon received too much credit for "Alien".

caus he stole from everyone so admitted by himself.

[Voodoo Magic]

Regardless if it was a conglomerate of established ideas, Alien wouldn't exist without him. Using Giger's designs. Impregnating a crew member. Acid for blood. That was all O'Bannon and Shuset [edit: plus an assist from Cobb].

[SiL]

Ron Cobb came up with acid for blood.

Without O'Bannon there's no script and do no movies, but I'm guessing the person was being facetious.

[Voodoo Magic]

Ron Cobb came up with acid for blood.

Ah that's riiiight. O'Bannon got that from talking to Cobb. Good catch!

[whiterabbit]

In any case, generally the director either gets most of the credit or gets most of the blame. Overall they're the ones responsible for the overall product.

[Huggs]

In any case, generally the director either gets most of the credit or gets most of the blame. Overall they're the ones responsible for the overall product.

True. I doubt there's a single frame on-screen that isn't approved by Cameron in his films. It's his vision, through and through.

[Voodoo Magic]

That's though because Cameron writes his own scripts.

[Kane's other son]

?

The seed for Alien was O' Bannon's but the shooting script is vastly different from his (derivative) draft and Scott is responsible for the visual identity and aesthetics, and of course the casting choices.

If you want to blame 21st century Scott for something, it would be for backtracking from Prometheus and the expansion of the Alien universe and going back to the original beast -Which is pretty much cooked in my opinion.

I am also not a fan of making the engineers just 8 feet tall.