Approach again in 2014, earlier than the orcas had rebelled, earlier than the virus, earlier than we realized that Alexander Hamilton may rap, Ridley Scott was the belle of the ball: twentieth Century Fox needed him to make one other Alien film, and Warner Bros. needed him to make one other Blade Runner film. Jurassic World and The Pressure Awakens weren’t out but, and the concept of doing a brand new entry in a legendary movie franchise was nonetheless a comparatively novel and thrilling concept. Scott should’ve been on high of the world!
However then considered one of Scott’s suitors developed an unsightly new persona trait: jealousy. Compelled to decide on between the film that may change into Alien: Covenant and the film that may change into Blade Runner 2049, Scott selected the Xenomorphs—or a minimum of a prototype model of the Xenomorphs—over Rick Deckard and the replicants. All of it labored out positive, with Covenant being pretty well-received and Denis Villeneuve’s 2049 arguably being higher than the unique Blade Runner (that’s us, we’re those arguing that), however Scott has some regrets about the entire thing.
Scott stated as a lot in a latest Empire piece (via Deadline), saying, “I shouldn’t have needed to make that call, however I needed to.” The implication there, in case it wasn’t clear prior to now, is that Fox made Scott selected between the 2 tasks, and he selected Covenant, however he additionally instructed Emprie that he “ought to have carried out Blade Runner 2” as effectively. It’s an fascinating “what if” state of affairs, as a result of 2049 was excellent in our actuality, but additionally Villeneuve was presumably working off of a fairly comparable script the one Scott would’ve used. Possibly the forged would’ve been completely different? Possibly Harrison Ford wouldn’t have been as recreation?
Both approach, Scott will nonetheless get to dwell out his “return to Blade Runner” goals slightly bit, since he’s govt producing Prime Video’s Blade Runner 2099 sequence. We don’t know a lot concerning the sequence, however it can most definitely should acknowledge among the large issues that occurred in 2049—specifically the revelation that replicants can have youngsters (completely happy belated second birthday to younger Ana Stelline, who’s hopefully doing okay in Lennie James’ orphanage along with her little wood horse). Additionally, we dwell on the planet the place Scott is making a Gladiator sequel, so he’s clearly nonetheless the belle of the ball.
(But when Scott had made 2049, who can be making the Dune motion pictures now???)