So, Ridley Scott has made 27 films in his five-decade moviemaking career. However, he has yet to win an Oscar. He wasn’t even nominated for "Alien” and "Blade Runner," his two best films, but that’s understandable given that both films were not met with glowing praise at the time of their releases.
Scott almost did win in 2001 when “Gladiator” won Best Picture and Russell Crowe won Best Actor, but he lost Best Director to Steven Soderbergh for “Traffic”. Two decades later, do people still believe Soderbergh’s win was deserved? I still think it was.
The following year, Scott, again, lost Best Director to Ron Howard (“A Beautiful Mind”) after being nominated for “Black Hawk Down.” In 2015, he was snubbed in that same category for “The Martian,” which is also the last time a film of his was nominated for Best Picture.
Will Scott’s 28th film, “Napoleon,” get him back in the race? “Napoleon” is indeed coming and the 86-year-old Scott spoke to The New Yorker about his latest film and, of course, his lack of an Oscar came up in the conversation:
You know, I haven’t gotten an Oscar yet. And, if I ever get one, I’ll say, ‘About feckin’ time!
Although "The Martian" was not the greatest work he’s ever done, most people were not only predicting a Scott nomination, but even a win that year. Hopefully, Scott might have a few more gems left in him. He’s a workhorse.
With the already-mentioned “Napoleon,” Scott is going back to shooting “Gladiator 2,” originally halted by the SAG-AFTRA strike, and has confirmed that he’s already scouting locations for a Western he plans to shoot next — possibly an adaptation of S Craig Zahler novel’s “Wraiths of the Broken Land.”
“Napoleon” will be in theaters on November 22nd. Early word on it is mixed. It’s supposed to screen for most of the U.S. press on 11.14.23, that’s also when its world premiere will be taking place in Paris.