Ridley Scott has done it all, with a legacy that has afforded the prolific 83 year-old Gladiator director the platform to say what he wants, and he’s currently doing that on the press rounds for his latest historical epic, The Last Duel. Having addressed the rumours surrounding the sequel to his Oscar-winning swords and sandal epic, he’s now been addressing the follow-ups to another of his critically revered classics, Alien.
During a fascinating interview with The Independent, Scott spoke about the perceived failure of his Alien universe-expanding prequels, Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, which were met with a mixed response, both for very different reasons. Reflecting on 2012’s Prometheus Scott said “I never showed an alien in it” – it still made $404 million at the box office – “and the studio … said, ‘See, it didn’t do so well!’ Really?”
Five years later he headed back into space for the sequel, this time with the xenomorphs in tow, or as Scott puts it he “put the aliens back in there”, but Covenant burned out with $240M worldwide, and the franchise was seemingly dead. Scott added “When you’ve got a marvellous beast, it does wear out and you have to actually think again.”
Well, think again is what they’ve done, because there was life detected on the motion scanner last year when a live-action TV show was announced, with Fargo‘s Noah Hawley on board to bring the horror to the small screen. While Scott’s name had been mentioned during the early reports, it’s not clear how much involvement he’ll actually have, or if he’ll have any at all if his comments here are anything to go by. When asked about the project, Scott responded with a grin, saying “It’ll never be as good as the first one. That’s what I’ll say.”
What do you think of Scott’s comments on the Alien franchise? Did you enjoy Prometheus or Covenant? Are you looking forward to Hawley’s TV show? Let us know by heading to our social channels @FlickeringMyth…
