He created the sci-fi horror masterpiece in 1979, but now it seems filmmaker Ridley Scott is done with the “Alien” franchise.
Scott created and directed the original film but wasn’t involved in “Aliens,” “Alien 3” or “Alien: Resurrection”. He returned to the franchise as director of “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant” as well as consulting and producing last year’s “Alien: Romulus”.
Out promoting the 20th anniversary of “Kingdom of Heaven,” with that film hitting 4K disc last week, Scott spoke with Screenrant and was asked about his potential future with the “Alien” franchise.
In a lengthy answer reflecting on his time with the franchise, he says he has ‘done enough,’ but he has hopes the franchise will continue:
“I think I felt it was deadened after 4. I think mine was pretty damn good, and I think Jim’s [James Cameron] was good, and I have to say the rest were not very good. And I thought, ‘F—, that’s the end of a franchise which should be as important as bloody Star Trek or Star Wars’…
A number of years after, I said, ‘I’m going to resurrect this,’ [and wrote] ‘Prometheus’ from scratch – a blank sheet of paper. Damon Lindelof and I sat then hammered out ‘Prometheus’. It was very present and very welcome. The audience really wanted more.
I said, ‘It needs to fly.’ No one was coming for it, [and] I went once again [and made] Alien Covenant, and it worked too. Where it’s going now, I think I’ve done enough, and I just hope it goes further.”
Scott’s “Prometheus” remains the most divisive of the films because it avoids the formulas of the others and tries something different – some of it works, some doesn’t.
Scott isn’t entirely absent from the future of “Alien” through as he’s an executive producer on FX’s “Alien: Earth” launching in July.
