Though it wasn’t a massive hit at the box office, Denis Villeneuve’s “Blade Runner 2049” is often regarded as one of the best sci-fi films of the past decade. That’s saying a lot, especially when you consider Ridley Scott wasn’t behind the camera. Instead, while “Blade Runner 2049” was being developed, Scott was working on his ill-fated ‘Alien’ prequel, ‘Covenant.’ And that’s a decision that still haunts the legendary filmmaker to this day.
Speaking to Empire (via Deadline), Ridley Scott talked about his decision to direct “Alien: Covenant” instead of “Blade Runner 2049.” The filmmaker, years later, now wishes he had the chance to actually direct ‘2049,’ instead of choosing between his two babies.
“I shouldn’t have had to make that decision,” Scott said. “But I had to. I should have done ‘Blade Runner 2.’”
Obviously, there’s the whole saying that hindsight is 20/20. At the time, it didn’t seem like such a crazy idea that Scott would choose to make a new ‘Alien’ film instead of ‘2049.’ He had already released “Prometheus” and Scott clearly had a passion for continuing the evolution of the ‘Alien’ franchise. Though he definitely wanted to make a new ‘Blade Runner’ film, he was seemingly really involved in what was going on with ‘Alien’ and didn’t have the time to do both. Thus, he made the tough decision.
That said, it’s hard to know if “Blade Runner 2049” would be of the same quality if Scott directed instead of Villeneuve. A lot of what made ‘2049’ such an incredible film to watch was the way Villeneuve directed the film. It’s unclear if the style and feel of the film would have been drastically different if Scott was behind the camera. To be fair, it could have actually been even better if the iconic filmmaker had his shot at it too. Who knows?
What we do know is that Ridley Scott isn’t done with the ‘Blade Runner’ franchise just yet. He’s attached as a producer on the Amazon series “Blade Runner 2099.” Not much is known about the film, but Scott also teased that it would be drawing inspiration from another classic tale.
“I’m one of the producers,” he said about ‘2099.’ “It’s all set years on. To me, it circles the idea of Aldous Huxley’s ‘Brave New World.’”
It’s unclear when we might see “Blade Runner 2099” hit the streaming service. Until then, we have “Gladiator 2” to look forward to from Scott, as he continues to mine his old successes for new projects.