In a new interview to promote his latest film, The Last Duel starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, iconic director Ridley Scott weighed in on the news that Noah Hawley is bringing a live-action Alien series to FX. Despite Hawley hewing close to the original film’s anti-capitalist message, Scott has his concerns about the undertaking, and well, he didn’t hold back his thoughts.
In fairness, Scott is drawing on his experience making the prequel film Prometheus, which he feels demonstrated the inherent risk of going back to the xenomorph well too many times. Via The Independent:
“I never showed an alien in it” – it still made $404 million at the box office – “and the studio … said, ‘See, it didn’t do so well!’ Really?” He returned with 2017’s Alien: Covenant, “put the aliens back in there”, and the film made much less: $240m worldwide. “When you’ve got a marvellous beast, it does wear out and you have to actually think again.”
The franchise is now being rebooted as a TV series by Noah Hawley (who successfully turned Fargo into a long-running show). Wherever they go, whatever they do, “It’ll never be as good as the first one,” he grins. “That’s what I’ll say.”
Damn, Ridley Scott, tell us how you really feel. Hawley’s skill as a showrunner aside, capturing the magic of film franchises from the ’70s and ’80s is no easy task. Just look at the slew of failed Terminator sequels, and heck, even the divisive state of Star Wars. There’s also the Aliens vs. Predators movies, and the less we say about those, the better.
Anyway, good luck, Noah Hawley, we’re all counting on you back here.
(Via The Independent)
