In Empire magazine’s September issue, Ridley Scott reveals he was forced to choose between directing “Blade Runner 2049” and “Alien: Covenant.” Unfortunately, the two did not quite shine in the firmament of the Box Office…
In his 46-year career, Sir Ridley Scott has established himself as a very great director, even with a checkered filmography. There aren’t many filmmakers who can be proud of having produced two masterpieces in the history of cinema in the space of barely three years: Alien, in 1979; and Blade Runner, in 1982.
It is an understatement to say that the announcement of the start of construction of a sequel to Blade Runner, seminal film of SF, was greeted at first sight with forks by the fans. What is the point of following up on an already perfect work, of which we have not yet finished exhausting all the riches? It was, however, a bet taken up by Denis Villeneuve with Blade Runner 2049, which intelligently brewed the glorious heritage of its elder released 35 years earlier. Alas, the film was a painful failure at the Box Office.
In 2014, while promoting his Peplum Exodus: Gods and Kings, Scott told Variety that he wouldn’t direct the sequel to Blade Runner, without really dwelling on the reasons. However, he insisted on his strong involvement in this film in the making, and still without a director in charge. Already on the screenplay, which he had developed with Hampton Fancher, screenwriter on the first film; but also as an executive producer.
Twentieth Century Fox
In the September issue of Empire magazine where he discusses his next film Napoleon, Scott reveals that he was actually forced to choose between directing blade runner 2049 and Alien: Covenant because both films were going into production at the same time.
“I shouldn’t have made that decision, but I had to. I should have made Blade Runner 2”, pointing the finger at the executives of Warner who had locked a release window for the Blade Runner sequel, preventing it from returning to the controllers. The two films will be released five months apart; Alien Covenant in May 2017 and blade runner 2049 in October.
Not only did the Blade Runner sequel fail to make $100 million at the US Box Office and even cost the film’s producing company that owned the rights, Alcon Entertainment, $80 million, but Alien Covenant was also heavily penalized at the Box Office, with barely $240 million on the clock.
You are not very tender with the film, if we judge the rating viewers it gets. If it is not according to you the worst film of Ridley Scott’s filmography (it’s Cartel), it is with an average of 2.79 / 5 the worst SF film of the master.