Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott GBE (born 30 November 1937) is an English filmmaker. He is best known for directing films in the science fiction, crime and historical drama genres. His work is known for its atmospheric and highly concentrated visual style.[1][2][3] He ranks among the highest-grossing directors and has received many accolades, including the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement in 2018, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Golden Globe Award.[4] He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II[5] in 2003 and appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire by King Charles III in 2024.[6]
Sir Ridley Scott
30 November 1937
- Film director
- scriptwriter
- producer
1963–present
-
Felicity Heywood(m. 1964; div. 1975)
-
Sandy Watson(m. 1979; div. 1989)
Tony Scott (brother)
An alumnus of the Royal College of Art in London, Scott began his career in television as a designer and director before moving into advertising as a director of commercials. He made his film directorial debut with The Duellists (1977) and gained wider recognition with his next film, Alien (1979). Though his films range widely in setting and period, they showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, spanning 2nd-century Rome in Gladiator (2000), 12th-century Jerusalem in Kingdom of Heaven (2005), medieval England in Robin Hood (2010), ancient Memphis in Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), contemporary Mogadishu in Black Hawk Down (2001), and the futuristic cityscapes of Blade Runner (1982) and different planets in Alien, Prometheus (2012), The Martian (2015) and Alien: Covenant (2017).
Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing for Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down.[2] Gladiator won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and he received a nomination in the same category for The Martian. In 1995, both Scott and his brother Tony received a British Academy Film Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.[7] Scott's films Alien, Blade Runner and Thelma & Louise were each selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being considered "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In a 2004 BBC poll, Scott was ranked 10 on the list of most influential people in British culture.[8] Scott is also known for his work in television, having earned 10 Primetime Emmy Award nominations. He won twice, for Outstanding Television Film for the HBO film The Gathering Storm (2002) and for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special for the History Channel's Gettysburg (2011).[9] He was Emmy-nominated for RKO 281 (1999), The Andromeda Strain (2008), and The Pillars of the Earth (2010).[10]
Career[edit]
1970s: The Duellists, Alien[edit]
The Duellists (1977) marked Ridley Scott's first feature film as director. Shot in continental Europe, it was nominated for the main prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and won an award for Best Debut Film. The Duellists had limited commercial impact internationally. Based on Joseph Conrad's short story "The Duel" and set during the Napoleonic Wars, it follows two French Hussar officers, D'Hubert and Feraud (Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel) whose quarrel over an initially minor incident turns into a bitter extended feud spanning fifteen years, interwoven with the larger conflict that provides its backdrop. The film has been acclaimed for providing a historically authentic portrayal of Napoleonic uniforms and military conduct.[31][32] The 2013 release of the film on Blu-ray coincided with the publication of an essay on the film in a collection of scholarly essays on Scott.[33]
Scott had originally planned next to adapt a version of Tristan and Iseult, but after seeing Star Wars, he became convinced of the potential of large scale, effects-driven films. He accepted the job of directing Alien, the 1979 horror/science-fiction film that would win him international success. Scott made the decision to switch Ellen Ripley from the standard male action hero to a heroine.[34] Ripley (played by Sigourney Weaver), who appeared in the first four Alien films, would become a cinematic icon.[34] The final scene of John Hurt's character has been named by a number of publications as one of the most memorable in cinematic history.[35] Filmed at Shepperton Studios in England, Alien was the sixth highest-grossing film of 1979, earning over $104 million worldwide.[36] Scott was involved in the 2003 restoration and re-release of the original film. In promotional interviews at the time, Scott indicated he had been in discussions to make a fifth film in the Alien franchise. However, in a 2006 interview, Scott remarked that he had been unhappy about Alien: The Director's Cut, feeling that the original was "pretty flawless" and that the additions were merely a marketing tool.[37] Scott later returned to Alien-related projects when he directed Prometheus and Alien: Covenant three decades after the original film's release.[38]
Television projects[edit]
In 2002, Ridley Scott and his brother Tony were among the executive producers of The Gathering Storm, a television biographical film of Winston Churchill in the years just prior to World War II. A BBC–HBO co-production, it received acclaim, with Mark Lawson of The Guardian ranking it as the most memorable television portrayal of Churchill.[122] The brothers produced the CBS series Numb3rs (2005–10), a crime drama about a genius mathematician who helps the FBI solve crimes; and The Good Wife (2009–2016), a legal drama about an attorney balancing her job with her husband, a former state attorney trying to rebuild his political career after a major scandal. The two Scotts also produced a 2010 film adaptation of 1980s television show The A-Team, directed by Joe Carnahan.[123][124]
Ridley Scott was an executive producer of the first season of Amazon's The Man in the High Castle (2015–16).[125] Through Scott Free Productions, he is an executive producer on the dark comic science-fiction series BrainDead which debuted on CBS in 2016.[126][127][128]
On 20 November 2017, Amazon agreed a deal with AMC Studios for a worldwide release of The Terror, Scott's series adaptation of Dan Simmons' novel, a speculative retelling of British explorer Sir John Franklin's lost expedition of HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to the Arctic in 1845–1848 to force the Northwest Passage, with elements of horror and supernatural fiction, and the series premiered in March 2018.[129][130] Scott was an executive producer for the 2019 BBC/FX three-part miniseries A Christmas Carol, developed by Steven Knight, alongside Tom Hardy.[131]
Scott's first television directing role in 50 years, Raised by Wolves, was released on HBO Max in 2020.[132][133] Scott said his "tendency was to think, 'I don't want to go down that road of androids again'", but decided to take on the project after he read the script and liked it.[133] The show revolves around androids Mother and Father, who attempt to save humankind on planet Kepler-22b after earth is demolished by war between the Mithraic, who follow a god called Sol, and militant atheists.[134]
In August 2022, it was announced Scott would executive produce the Apple TV+ series Sinking Spring, written by Peter Craig and starring Brian Tyree Henry, and would also direct an episode.[135]