There’s this really insightful piece on Ridley Scott, courtesy of The New Yorker, well worth a read. Scott goes through his entire career in this interview.
Scott has “Napoleon” coming out in two weeks, he’s already shot half of his “Gladiator” sequel and he’s not slowing down after that. There’s further proof that the 86-year-old filmmaker will continue on, as long as his health permits.
It turns out that Scott is working on a Western and has already storyboarded and location scouted it. No other details were given, but I believe that this would be the first Western that Scott has ever directed — unless you count 2013’s “The Counselor” as being part of that genre.
Speaking of “The Counselor,” Scott still sounds bitter over how 20th Century Fox managed that polarizing film. In the New Yorker piece, he maintains that the film was the victim of bad marketing (“They fucked it up.”)
Furthermore, the author asks a question that many seem to be asking about Scott’s legacy as a director — “Is Ridley a fine artist? Is he an art-cinema director? Is he a commercial hack? Is he all of the above?”
Scott feels the same way. “My choices tend to be random,” he replies.
That’s what fascinates me most about Scott: his unpredictable nature. That’s why I decided to conduct a critics poll on his best films — the results were predictably wide-ranging.
Scott has managed to build a 5-decade career with his earliest films, “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” having been groundbreakers in the horror and sci-go genres. Just with those two titles alone he’s built a legacy for himself, but he continued to make the films for the next 40 years.
Although he’d never again reach the heights of “Alien” and “Blade Runner,” he’s still managed to direct more than a handful of good movies since then. As far as I’m concerned, a new film from Ridley Scott is always more than welcome.
I can confirm that Joel Coen’s “Jack of Spades” is based on Frances Frederica Montrésor’s 1901 novel “The Alien: A Story of Middle Age.” It’s a ghost story. A gothic mystery.