Ridley Scott is Still Teasing Us with 'Blood Meridian'

Sure, Ridley certainly would be capable of making the film. Any truly solid director who was willing to tackle the material could make BM into a film.

It is violent, and a lot of that violence at times involves women and children (babies)....but we've already seen worse put on screen.

Anyway, who cares if it is bloody? There is an audience for it (as the torture porn genre has demonstrated). This business about the story being better left a novel is pure rot. Ridley is just stalling.

Reply

It is a hell of a book, and any faithful adaptation would one of the darkest, most violent movies ever made. And a great movie, too.

Reply

Jessica, I suggest you read the book before commenting on whether it should be made into a film, You're speaking from a position of ignorance.

I don't see how the film could be made without all the horrendous, mindless violence of the book. [yes, of course I've read it] Doing it justice would offend many, and I don't buy that just because there are other bloody films, that we need another.

I care that it would be bloody. Reading the book was hard enough, but it was superb prose, not a slasher film. I could put it down, think about what I'd read and contemplate at my pace and tolerance. You can't do that with a film.

Reply

I like Todd Field, but I truly believe he would make it too small and not a big budgeted film that Ridley would make it. Ridley proved himself with American Gangster in balancing a big budget while making an emotional film (even more so than Gladiator). Scott would be the perfect choice for this.

Reply

stick with me here, but I think Mel Gibson would do a great job filming this. is there any other one director who has made such a commitment to violence on screen, both poetic and brutal?

Reply

There are few people who could pull this off because it's a novel that attacks the reader with violent near non-sequiters without ever changing it's quiet, brooding tone. It's like watching a vulture sit watching a dying animal. Once the thing is dead, the vulture isn't a spectator, it's a participant in the most savage way possible.

Ridley Scott could do it with a good screenplay (in fact with such a screenplay i'd call him the most suited to the job). P.T. Anderson could do it, David Fincher could do it. I want to say David Lynch. but I just know something would happen and it would stop being an adaptation. Tomas Alfredson could do it. Alfonso Cuaron could do it. Mel Gibson could do it, but I don't want him anywhere near this. With a few more films under his belt, Bryan Bertino could do it. I wish Sam Peckinpah were still alive.

Reply

The power of the book and its prose is its address of violence and how man can behave and live within the parameters of his own set of moralities. This is true of Hollywood. It has its own sense of morality and will only make movies which build, empower and perpetuate it further beyond its boundaries. The question we should ask is not about who could make the film or if it is too violent!! but why it should be made.

As a book 'blood meridan' enables humanity to address ones demons and see the past for what it really was. Sanitised history is what fuels Hollywood and if this book was to succumb to this then it will fail.
Go see the Russian WW11 film 'Come and see" and then you will get how blood meridian could take shape and be made real. A film of true horror which like the book 'Blood Meridian" haunts you long after viewing.

Reply

When I read the book there had been no mention of a movie and I would occasionally think to myself that Werner Herzog could probably do a hell of a job with this subject. Now that it's been announced and sticking to my guns. I think Ridley Scott is far too entrenched into the Hollywood formula to do the story justice.

There are no protagonists and no redemption. The film needs a director who isn't going to get hung up on not being able to "connect to the audience" with a hero and an uplifting ending.

Watch "Aguirre: The Wrath of God", I think the mood of that film is perfect for the delivery of Blood Meridian. Herzog would be the only director I could get behind for this. It's one of my favorite books.

Reply

No one has mentioned the Coen brothers or that they did a fantastic job with the last McCarthy film adaptation (No Country For Old Men). Why are they not the first choice?

Reply

Ridley scott will be a perfect director for this story. The book does have lots of details and a writer and director should work real deep and carefully bring the story and characters live on the screen.

If Ridley Scott is not doing this, I think they should give it to "Coen Brothers" or "Clint Eastwood" to direct this movie.

If not Coens or Eastwood or Scott, then just let the story be on shalves in the book stores.

I sometimes think, that I hope Mel Gibson picks it up to read it.

Reply

I must agree that Mel Gibson would be the man to direct "Blood Meridian". I have read the book twice and while certainly this is an intensely violent story, it is poetic. Just as he did with "Braveheart", Gibson can peruse the depths of the story while not shying away from the brutality of it. He has the smarts, the style, and the directorial ability to do the novel justice.

Reply