Legendary director Ridley Scott has directed 27 movies and has two in production as we speak. Among these are bona fide cinematic classics like Thelma & Louise, Gladiator, Alien, and Blade Runner. But he hasn’t always dazzled, with 2017’s Alien: Covenant a box office failure that’s stalled the Alien franchise in theaters.
Now, Scott has gone into detail about the difficult choice he had to make in the mid-2010s. Alien: Covenant and Blade Runner 2049 had both been in pre-production together, with Scott helping develop both movies. But when it came time to shoot there was a scheduling conflict and he had to make a choice. As per Scott in an interview with Empire (via Variety):
“I shouldn’t have had to make that decision. But I had to. I should have done ‘Blade Runner 2.’”
From where just about everyone else is standing, it’s hard to imagine a better movie than the Blade Runner 2049 we got. Replacement director Denis Villeneuve hit a home run with a combination of dazzling special effects, stunning cinematography, and a killer soundtrack.
We don’t know what happened behind the scenes on Alien: Covenant, though perhaps building on the rather wonky foundations of Prometheus and going for an outer-space gothic horror vibe wasn’t the right call.
Either way, Alien is now owned by Disney and the franchise is still on ice and Blade Runner is moving forward. Amazon Prime Video is developing Blade Runner 2099, which Scott will produce. He bills it as:
“It’s all set years on. To me, it circles the idea of Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World.’”
We’re also getting Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth from Annapurna Interactive on PC and consoles, though we don’t yet have a release window.
Perhaps Scott should have directed Blade Runner 2049, though with him now working on Napoleon and Gladiator 2, and the Blade Runner franchise going from strength to strength, we can’t complain about how things turned out.