RidleyScott Tagged Articles at Cinematical

When word hit that Ridley Scott was on board to direct the long talked about A L I E N prequel, what ran through your mind? Were you thinking lots of alien action? A Giger-iffic closer look at the xenomorphs? If so, you might want to start reeling back those alien expectations. Empire Magazine recently got the scoop from Scott, and he's got something else in mind.

The director was in London for his daughter's debut at the London Film Festival when he told the mag about his ideas for the prequel. He said: "We know what the road map is, and the screenplay is now being put on paper. The prequel will be a while ago. It's very difficult to put a year on A L I E N, but [for example] if A L I E N was towards the end of this century, then the prequel story will take place thirty years prior." Empire takes this to mean a human focus for the film.

I wish that dreaded set of Star Wars prequels hadn't made me recoil at the thought of any ultra-updated FX in prequel stories. However, on the bright side: If Scott tackles things in a similar way -- looking to Giger for inspiration, for example -- it's sure to be a beauty of a film. Are you up for this A L I E N prequel, or do you wish the past just stayed in the uncharted murky depths?

Over three years after word hit that Ridley Scott was going to dive into the world of Gucci, the project is finally picking up steam. And not just any steam -- femme fatale flavor with Angelina Jolie. Variety reports that the actress, who is already circling The Tourist, is now talking with Scott about whether she should jump on the Gucci train to play Patrizia Reggiano. That's Maurizio Gucci's ex, the woman who got a 29-year sentence for plotting his murder.

Fox 2000 wants to get things going next year, so the push is on. The script has been rewritten, given priority by the studio, and will focus on " the glamorous days of the Gucci family dynasty in the 1970s and '80s, when the family was selling $500 million in product annually." It will look into the familial fights, power struggles, and how the man was "gunned down in front of his Milan apartment in 1995."

Of course, having the femme fatale is good and all, especially after her fashion-centric stint in Gia all those years ago, but you can't have the murderess without the murderee. Scott hasn't signed anyone yet, although he has broached the topic with Leonardo DiCaprio. I guess that could work, but taking a look at this mug, I'm thinking Matt Damon will be asked next.

What do you think of this whole production and what actor would you thrust into the world of fashion and untimely death?

Remakes are inevitable. I know, I know. But at least when the remakes are of foreign-language films, I can rant whilst understanding that they're spoon feeding the anti-subtitle audience. Lots of people don't like making their eyes watch a scene and read text scrolling along the bottom at the same time. I get it. But since when did English films, as in films from the U.K., get the same treatment? Variety reports that Columbia Pictures has grabbed the rights to the British miniseries Red Riding, and Steve Zaillian is in negotiations to shrink the story into one film while Ridley Scott is spotlit to direct.

Miniseries doesn't quite cover it. We're talking about David Peace's quartet of books going into a trilogy of films. Movies directed by Julian Jarrold (Kinky Boots), James Marsh (Man on Wire), and Anand Tucker (Shopgirl). And by the way -- they only premiered this year, and are currently running through the festival circuit. The collection of stories cover the years 1974, 1980, and 1983, and place a fictionalized drama against the backdrop of real-life serial killer cases like the Yorkshire Ripper. This new incarnation, which will be whittled down to one solitary film, will move things to the U.S., and presumably cover Stateside killers.

I wish vampires were real. Not because I have any interest in seeing the world devolve into "True Blood" coming-out-of-the-coffin antics, but because I'm curious if their still blood boils at the thought of how Hollywood has been capitalizing on their image of late. Just when you thought the newly rekindled global studio lust for all things fanged could not possibly become any more saturated, along comes Fox to drop another title in the seemingly bottomless bucket of bloodsuckers: The Passage, an unpublished novel written by Justin Cronin under the pseudonym Jordan Ainsley.

Considering the seven-figures Variety reports Fox 2000 has already poured into the rights to turn the work into a film (news you should recall from Weinberg's article here), it's no surprise they're now breaking out an Oscar nominated screenwriting gun to help differentiate their vampire world from the rising cacophony of films it will be joining in the next year or two. In a secondary seven-figure deal, Fox 2000 has entrusted scripting duties to The Aviator, The Last Samurai, Sweeney Todd, and Gladiator screenwriter John Logan, with the ultimate intention of handing directorial duties to Gladiator helmer Ridley Scott. Though considering the log-jam of films Scott has in his 'maybe pile' at this point, I wouldn't hold your breath for that last part to see fruition.

Once the talks are done and the ink is dry, Joe Carnahan and Ridley Scott will have their The A-Team assembled. According to Variety*, Sharlto Copley (better known as Wikus Van De Merwe in District 9) and Jessica Biel have been enlisted into the cast, which already includes Liam Neeson, Bradley Cooper, and Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.

If you know your A-Team, you can probably guess who Copley is playing: Howling Mad Murdock. He was the team's edgy and unpredictable helicopter pilot, always freshly escaped from the mental asylum just in time for an adventure. It was never clear if he was truly mentally unstable and friends with an invisible dog, or if it was all an act. (Somewhere, there is a student who did a paper comparing Murdock to Hamlet, and somewhere a teacher flunked him unfairly.) If you saw District 9, you know Copley is perfect for the part, so there's no need to say anything more other than "That's so cool! May he become a big star!"

Biel's character is actually quite interesting. While she's the "former love interest" of Cooper's Faceman, she's not just the obligatory girl who is only there to remind you that their love is just brotherly. She's actually a general in the U.S. Army bent on capturing our heart-of-gold mercenaries. Will her love for Cooper's blue eyes and just-so hair win her back, and see her actually join the A-Team for the inevitable sequel? Will she always be the villain of the series, finding them just when they think they're safe? We'll know soon, The A-Team begins shooting later this fall in Vancouver, and will hit theaters June 11, 2010.

[*We have to give a shoutout to Blackfilm, who first landed the Copley scoop. Good work, gang.]

In Hollywood, it's damned if you do, damned if you don't. Pointing to Steven Spielberg (remaking Harvey), Rob Marshall (considering Pirates of the Caribbean 4), Ridley Scott (prepping an Alien prequel), and others, Anne Thompson suggests: "It's about fear of failure. In today's Hollywood, it takes guts to be original."

A longtime industry observer whose essential Thompson on Hollywood blog is now hosted by indieWIRE, Thompson acknowledges that "books, plays, tv shows, videogames, theme park rides, comics and graphic novels are easier to make than anything original ... But these are Hollywood's best and brightest, the directors who can usually get anything made. But not if the studios don't give them the money. These are what the studios consider to be the most commercial projects ... Every studio is desperately seeking franchises, tentpoles, remakes, reboots, prequels and sequels. Original is a dirty word. It means having to start something from scratch with no safety zone."

Yet even when a studio does make an original or two, it still must have the "clout to wrangle filmmakers into submission" when needed, as she writes in a separate post, analyzing recent troubles at Universal Pictures. She feels that if the execs had exercised greater control over Michael Mann (Public Enemies) and Judd Apatow (Funny People), their films would have been better. So we have a fear of financial failure, coupled with an inability to "wrangle filmmakers into submission." I say the biggest problem is that too few studio executives know what they're doing. Is there any way to "fix" Hollywood? Or are we stuck with what they give us?

What would it take for you to get up, leave your house, spend a few dollars ... all to enjoy a film that you already own on DVD? Put another way, would you fly halfway across the country to see a brand-new 35mm print of your all-time favorite movie? Well I did last weekend! As it stands I only need the flimsiest of excuses to visit Austin, Texas, but last week I had a chance to see a friend's film in front of a packed, horror-hungry crowd (it was The Collector, and I dug it) -- followed only a few days later by an Alamo Drafthouse sold-out screening of (wait for it) Ridley Scott's A L I E N. The near-flawless* sci-fi horror film that still resides at #1 on my lifetime list.

So I sat down with a bunch of great friends (and a huge batch of wonderfully well-behaved audience members) to see a film I've gone over ... about 25 times. So what new stuff did I see? First off, I was struck by how much the audience loved Yaphet Kotto as the ever-griping space mechanic known as Parker. He's the only real source of light humor in the film, and virtually all of his dialog was met by appreciative chuckles from the audience. Especially when he keeps warning Dallas and Ash to "freeze it, freeze the damn thing! Why don't they freeze it?"

By: Scott Weinberg

We've been hearing a lot about a reboot / remake / prequel of the original A L I E N for quite some time now, but things have picked up in the last several weeks, and the latest news is actually pretty surprising: According to Variety, no less than Ridley Scott himself will be directing the prequel, and if I need to remind you that Mr. Scott directed the first A L I E N, then I think you may be at the wrong horror blog. The screenwriter for the flick will be Jon Spaihts, who's clearly one of those "mega-busy but untested" scribes. The guy has no less than five scripts in various stages of development, including Children of Mars and Shadow 19.

Read the rest over at Horror Squad

With the economy hurting, what better time to start up a new film studio? DF Indie Studios officially announced itself to the world yesterday, though news broke first via our friends at indieWIRE the other night. The company "is uniting veteran producers with sales and distribution experts." DF Indie Studios says it will "fully finance as many as a dozen films per year, each at a budget of up to $10 million. Significantly, the movies will also have guaranteed U.S. theatrical distribution through the company."

Notable names such as veteran producer Ted Hope (Adventureland, In the Bedroom) and distribution ace Ira Deutchman are involved with the company, as well as Scott Free, the production company of Ridley Scott and his brother Tony Scott (The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3). Company executives told indieWIRE that "the first five films will go into production this fall and hit the festival circuit next year." They also expressed the rather incredible hope that they will create between 10,000 and 15,000 (!!!) film jobs over the next five years. DF Indie Studios is still raising money for their venture, and is about halfway to their $100 million goal, according to the Associated Press.

What type of films will the company be backing? The press release mentions "commercially viable" twice and says they are partnering with "established producers with successful box office track records." Film journalist / critic Anthony Kaufman points to the Variety story, "which reported the company's aims are to make films such as 'the Saw franchise, Juno, Good Night, and Good Luck and Little Miss Sunshine.'"