Whether you believe Ridley Scott is a master who never misses, or someone who’s work presents itself a a little ‘off and on’, you can’t deny that there have been some incredible movies under the Ridley Scott banner. Some of the best science fiction movies and best drama movies can be attributed to the filmmaker, and he never stops.
In fact, the Gladiator 2 release date is heavily marked on our planners (After all, when it comes to epic historical retellings, he has a fair few winners under his belt.) Whether or not these new movies will stand as some of the best movies under his name remains to be seen, but we can’t wait to find out.
But Scott himself has a few thoughts on his expansive career, and a couple of regrets as well. Most recently, he’s been vocal about one choice he views as a misstep, and how it ended up on him loosing out on a project he may have much preferred to work on.
One of the best Ridley Scott movies that have come to mold pop culture in its stead is Blade Runner, the 1982 dystopian robot movie. Starring Harrison Ford, Blade Runner became one of the biggest movies of its genre, and it still influencing new films of its kind even today.
In 2017, the sequel starring Ryan Gosling would hit the big screens. It was one of the most impressive visual outings of the year, and although it perhaps didn’t quite live up to the legend of the original (in our opinion), it did earn its stripes. Stunning cinematography, creative world-building, and a classic Ryan-Gosling-stares-at-things performance…it’s all there.
But Ridley Scott, the mastermind behind the original, was not at the helm for the sequel. Instead, it was Denis Villeneuve. Scott was unable to direct the sequel for scheduling reasons, since he had already been locked in to direct 2017’s Alien: Covenant.
Although Scott did produce the Blade Runner sequel, it sounds as if he would have much rather been in the director’s chair. “I shouldn’t have had to make that decision,” Scott said in a recent interview with Empire. “But I had to. I should have done Blade Runner 2.”
For those unfamiliar with the Alien timeline, Alien: Covenant is the sixth movie of the franchise, which started in 1979 with Ridley Scott’s Alien. The series of alien movies would be passed from director to director, but Scott stepped back on board with 2012’s Prometheus. It was something of a big deal for fans that Scott was now back in the swing of Alien culture, but we can see how he would be torn between sequels for two of his greatest hits.
Scott is now currently producing an Amazon Prime limited series titled Blade Runner 2099, and is stepping back into the franchise that once began with him, but seemed to slip out of his grasp.
“I’m one of the producers,” he said of the new sci-fi series. “It’s all set years on. To me, it circles the idea of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World.”
For more on Scott, find out why Harrison Ford and Ridley Scott still argue about Blade Runner. You can also revisit a classic with our Aliens review, and see why Alien 3 sold our Jakob Barnes on the franchise.