Ridley Scott’s Biggest Regret Involves Two Legendary Sci-Fi Franchises

One thing you can count on Ridley Scott for is an honest opinion. The director is famously candid in his interviews, previously blaming the box office for his film “The Last Duel” on the entire millennial generation and talking openly about how he thinks the long-gestating “Alien” TV series won’t be as good as his movies.

On that last point, the director might well be onto something, especially if we’re talking about his original 1979 masterpiece “Alien.” The film that kick-started the franchise really stands on its own as a seminal slow burn space horror, showcasing a mastery of mood and atmosphere that, regardless of Scott’s other work, will always serve as a testament to the man’s greatness. No matter how good the TV show is, it will indeed never be able to supersede something so monumental.

Surprisingly, Scott is actually attached to that TV project as an executive producer, proving that even his own creative input isn’t enough to stop the legendary filmmaker from speaking his mind. If he had things his way, however, he’d have a lot more creative input. In fact, one of the director’s biggest regrets is not securing more ownership over both the “Alien” franchise and another of his most celebrated contributions to cinema.

After Ridley Scott produced one of the most important box office hits in history with 1979’s “Alien” the man went straight to work on producing another seminal sci-fi effort in the form of 1982’s “Blade Runner” (though, Scott doesn’t think of “Blade Runner” as a science fiction film). Unfortunately, the Harrison Ford-led film was nowhere near as successful as Scott’s previous project, becoming a notorious box office flop that was buried by Steven Spielberg’s “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.”

Of course, in the decades that followed, “Blade Runner” was recognized for being every bit the masterpiece “Alien” was. Now, both films are considered to be among not only the finest sci-fi movies ever made, but the finest films of the 20th Century. Unfortunately, the man who crafted the immersive worlds therein didn’t secure any kind of significant ownership over either title, leaving Hollywood to do what it does best and start cranking out sequels with reckless abandon — at least in the case of “Alien.”

After James Cameron was handed the reins to the franchise, he delivered one of the best sequels in Hollywood history with 1986’s “Aliens,” before David Fincher took over for the frequently but undeservedly maligned “Alien 3” in 1992. Then, Joss Whedon and Jean-Pierre Jeunet got their hands on the property and gave us a space horror B movie with 1997’s “Alien: Resurrection,” before Scott finally returned to the franchise with “Prometheus” in 2012 and “Alien: Covenant” in 2017. Despite his return to the saga, however, Scott and his Scott Free production company still had no real ownership of the “Alien” brand.

The same year Scott delivered the thoughtful and gnarly “Alien: Covenant,” “Blade Runner” finally received a follow-up, with Denis Villeneuve’s excellent “Blade Runner 2049,” itself an underappreciated box office disappointment. On one side, then, you have the uneven lineage of “Alien” films, which more recently added Fede Álvarez’s sequel-prequel “Alien: Romulus.” On the other side, you have two brilliant “Blade Runner” movies, neither of which made any money at the box office. Would things have been different had Scott been more involved with shepherding each franchise? The director certainly thinks so.

As of this moment, the “Alien” franchise belongs to Disney, following the company’s 2019 acquisition of 20th Century Fox. “Blade Runner,” meanwhile, remains the property of Alcon Entertainment, which currently has a Michelle Yeoh-led “Blade Runner 2099” series in the works over at Amazon’s Prime Video. All of which means that Ridley Scott is left to watch the franchises he birthed evolve without his stewardship, like some lugubrious engineer from the “Alien” universe, watching his creations dwindle away their time — though Fede Álvarez did seek the director’s advice on his final cut of “Alien: Romulus.” In October 2024, Scott spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about his regret over not securing the “Alien” and “Blade Runner” franchises earlier in his career, saying:

“I should have locked them up, as [Steven] Spielberg did with “Jurassic,” and everything he does, and James Cameron has done with what he has. I resurrected a dead “Alien” [franchise] with “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant,” and we should have rejoined the ownership right then, and we didn’t, because someone was careless.”

Who, exactly, was careless? Well, Scott also spoke to Vanity Fair about letting his two biggest franchises go, saying

“Most directors in Hollywood — certainly, let’s say, at my level — don’t let that stuff go. But I did ‘Alien’ as my second movie, so I didn’t have much choice. And ‘Blade Runner’ was my third movie. So, I had no choice because I had very tough partners. It was kind of ‘Welcome to Hollywood.'”

Those “partners” appear to be the ones Scott blames for losing control of the rights to two of his biggest films, though as he also alludes to, the reality is that he simply wasn’t seasoned enough to secure ownership over the films at that time in his career. Would the history of either franchise look better had Scott been in full control? That’s debatable — especially considering the director’s filmography isn’t without the odd blemish. At the very least, I suppose we would have been spared that unhinged basketball scene in “Alien: Resurrection.”