Portal:Ridley Scott
Portal maintenance status: (October 2018)
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Introduction
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. Following his commercial breakthrough with the science fiction horror film Alien (1979), further works include the neo-noir dystopian science fiction film Blade Runner, historical drama Gladiator (which won the Academy Award for Best Picture), and science fiction film The Martian.
Scott's work has an atmospheric, highly concentrated visual style. Though his films range widely in setting and period, they frequently showcase memorable imagery of urban environments, whether 2nd century Rome (Gladiator), 12th century Jerusalem (Kingdom of Heaven), Medieval England (Robin Hood), contemporary Mogadishu (Black Hawk Down), the future cityscapes of Blade Runner, or the distant planets in Alien, Prometheus, The Martian and Alien: Covenant. His films are also known for their strong female characters.
Selected general articles
- Someone to Watch Over Me is a 1987 romance crime thriller film starring Tom Berenger and Mimi Rogers and directed by Ridley Scott. The film's soundtrack includes the George and Ira Gershwin song from which the film takes its title, here sung by Sting, and Vangelis' "Memories of Green", originally from Scott's Blade Runner. Read more...
- Exodus: Gods and Kings is a 2014 epic biblical adventure drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott. An international co-production between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Spain, it was produced by Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, Michael Schaefer, and Mark Huffam with music by Alberto Iglesias and written by Adam Cooper, Bill Collage, Jeffrey Caine, and Steven Zaillian. The film stars Christian Bale, Joel Edgerton, John Turturro, Aaron Paul, Ben Mendelsohn, María Valverde, Sigourney Weaver, Ghassan Massoud, Indira Varma, Golshifteh Farahani, and Ben Kingsley. It is inspired by the biblical episode of the exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt led by Moses and related in the Book of Exodus.
The film was released on December 12, 2014 by 20th Century Fox. It received generally negative reviews from critics and earned $268 million. The film was dedicated to filmmaker and Ridley's brother Tony Scott, who died in August 2012. Read more... - White Squall is a 1996 American disaster survival feature film, directed by Ridley Scott. It is a coming of age film in which a group of high school and college age teen-agers sign up for several months of training aboard a sail ship, a brigantine, and travel around half the globe when suddenly they are challenged by a severe storm. The film stars Jeff Bridges in the role of the captain, called "Skipper", his wife played by Caroline Goodall, and a supporting cast portraying a group of nearly a dozen student sailors. Read more...
- Gladiator is a 2000 epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson. The film was jointly produced and released by DreamWorks Pictures and Universal Pictures. It stars Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, Ralf Möller, Oliver Reed (in his final role), Djimon Hounsou, Derek Jacobi, John Shrapnel, and Richard Harris. Crowe portrays Hispano-Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, who is betrayed when Commodus, the ambitious son of Emperor Marcus Aurelius, murders his father and seizes the throne. Reduced to slavery, Maximus rises through the ranks of the gladiatorial arena to avenge the murders of his family and his emperor.
Inspired by Daniel P. Mannix's 1958 novel Those About to Die, the film's script, initially written by Franzoni, was acquired by DreamWorks and Ridley Scott signed on to direct the film. Principal photography, which started out before the script was completed, began in January 1999 and wrapped up in May of that year, with the scenes of Ancient Rome were shot over a period of nineteen weeks in Fort Ricasoli, Malta. The film's computer-generated imagery effects were created by British post-production company The Mill. Read more... - Hannibal is a 2001 American psychological horror thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, adapted from Thomas Harris's 1999 novel of the same name. It is the sequel to the 1991 Academy Award–winning film The Silence of the Lambs in which Anthony Hopkins returns to his role as the iconic serial killer, Hannibal Lecter. Julianne Moore co-stars, in the role first held by Jodie Foster, as FBI Special Agent Clarice Starling.
The film had a difficult and occasionally troubling pre-production history. When the novel was published in 1999, The Silence of the Lambs director Jonathan Demme, screenwriter Ted Tally, and actress Jodie Foster all declined to be involved in its adaptation. Ridley Scott became attached as director after the success of Gladiator (2000), and eventually signed onto the project after reading the script pitched by Dino De Laurentiis, who produced Manhunter (1986), based on the 1981 Harris novel Red Dragon. After the departure of Foster and screenwriter Tally, Julianne Moore took on Foster's role while David Mamet and Steven Zaillian wrote the screenplay. Read more... - Body of Lies is a 2008 American spy thriller film directed and produced by Ridley Scott. Set in the Middle East, it follows the attempts of the CIA and Jordanian Intelligence to catch "al-Saleem", a terrorist. Frustrated by their target's elusiveness, differences in their approaches strain relations between a CIA operative, his superior, and the head of Jordanian Intelligence. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Russell Crowe, and Mark Strong as the three principals.
William Monahan's screenplay, based on the novel of the same name by David Ignatius, examines contemporary tension between Western and Arab societies, and the comparative effectiveness of technological and human counter-intelligence methods. The film was shot largely on location in the United States and Morocco, after authorities in Dubai refused permission to film there because of the script's political themes. The film's photography sought to emphasize the contrast between the gold and dust of the desert, and Arab cities, and the blue and gray of bureaucracy and Washington, D.C.. Accordingly, they used natural light wherever possible. Marc Streitenfeld arranged the musical score. Read more... - Alien is a 1979 science fiction horror film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Dan O'Bannon. Based on a story by O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, it follows the crew of the commercial space tug Nostromo who encounter the eponymous Alien, a deadly and aggressive extraterrestrial set loose on the ship. The film stars Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, Veronica Cartwright, Harry Dean Stanton, John Hurt, Ian Holm, and Yaphet Kotto. It was produced by Gordon Carroll, David Giler and Walter Hill through their company Brandywine Productions, and was distributed by 20th Century Fox. Giler and Hill revised and made additions to the script; Shusett was executive producer. The Alien and its accompanying artifacts were designed by the Swiss artist H. R. Giger, while concept artists Ron Cobb and Chris Foss designed the more human settings.
Alien was released on May 25, 1979 in the United States and September 6 in the United Kingdom. It was met with critical acclaim and box office success, winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, three Saturn Awards (Best Science Fiction Film, Best Direction for Scott, and Best Supporting Actress for Cartwright), and a Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, along with numerous other nominations. It has been consistently praised in the years since its release, and is considered one of the greatest films of all time. In 2002, Alien was deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" by the Library of Congress and was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. In 2008, it was ranked by the American Film Institute as the seventh-best film in the science fiction genre, and as the thirty-third greatest film of all time by Empire magazine. Read more... - "1984" is an American television commercial that introduced the Apple Macintosh personal computer. It was conceived by Steve Hayden, Brent Thomas and Lee Clow at Chiat\Day, produced by New York production company Fairbanks Films, and directed by Ridley Scott. English athlete Anya Major performed as the unnamed heroine and David Graham as Big Brother. It first aired in 10 local outlets, including Twin Falls, Idaho, where Chiat\Day ran the ad on December 31, 1983, at the last possible break before midnight on KMVT, so that the advertisement qualified for 1983 advertising awards. Its second televised airing, and only national airing, was on January 22, 1984, during a break in the third quarter of the telecast of Super Bowl XVIII by CBS.
In one interpretation of the commercial, "1984" used the unnamed heroine to represent the coming of the Macintosh (indicated by her white tank top with a stylized line drawing of Apple’s Macintosh computer on it) as a means of saving humanity from "conformity" (Big Brother). These images were an allusion to George Orwell's noted novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, which described a dystopian future ruled by a televised "Big Brother". The estate of George Orwell and the television rightsholder to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four considered the commercial to be a copyright infringement and sent a cease-and-desist letter to Apple and Chiat\Day in April 1984. Read more... - The Martian is a 2015 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Matt Damon. The screenplay by Drew Goddard is based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel of the same name about an astronaut who is mistakenly presumed dead and left behind on Mars. The film depicts his struggle to survive and others' efforts to rescue him. It also stars Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Peña, Kate Mara, Sean Bean, Sebastian Stan, Donald Glover, Aksel Hennie, and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
The film, produced through 20th Century Fox, is a co-production of the United States and the United Kingdom. Producer Simon Kinberg began developing the film after Fox optioned the novel in March 2013, which Drew Goddard adapted into a screenplay and was initially attached to direct, but the film did not move forward. Scott replaced Goddard, and with Damon in place as the main character, production was approved. Filming began in November 2014 and lasted approximately seventy days. Twenty sets were built on a sound stage in Budapest, Hungary, one of the largest in the world. Wadi Rum in Jordan was also used as a backdrop for filming. Read more... - All the Invisible Children is a 2005 anthology film on the theme of childhood and exploitation. It is a collection of seven short films, each focused on a different child.
The film has a total runtime of 116 minutes, averaging 16 minutes each.
It premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 1 September 2005. Read more... - Alien: Covenant is a 2017 science fiction horror film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by John Logan and Dante Harper, from a story by Michael Green and Jack Paglen. A joint American and British production, the film is a sequel to Prometheus (2012) and is the second installment in the Alien prequel series and the sixth installment overall in the Alien film series, as well as the third directed by Scott. The film features returning star Michael Fassbender and Katherine Waterston, with Billy Crudup, Danny McBride and Demián Bichir in supporting roles. It follows the crew of a colony ship that lands on an uncharted planet and makes a terrifying discovery.
In 2012, prior to the release of Prometheus, Ridley Scott discussed the prospects of a sequel and new trilogy, and the film was confirmed that August. Principal photography began on April 4, 2016, at Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park, New Zealand, and wrapped on July 19, 2016. Effects houses Odd Studios and CreatureNFX provided the film's makeup and animatronic creature effects. Scott said that the first cut of the film was two hours and twenty-three minutes long, and was eventually edited down to the two hours and three minutes of the released version. Read more... - Prometheus (/prəˈmiːθiəs/ prə-MEE-thee-əs) is a 2012 science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, written by Jon Spaihts and Damon Lindelof and starring Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Guy Pearce, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, and Charlize Theron. It is set in the late 21st century and centers on the crew of the spaceship Prometheus as it follows a star map discovered among the artifacts of several ancient Earth cultures. Seeking the origins of humanity, the crew arrives on a distant world and discovers a threat that could cause the extinction of the human species.
Development of the film began in the early 2000s as a fifth installment in the Alien franchise. Scott and director James Cameron developed ideas for a film that would serve as a prequel to Scott's 1979 science-fiction horror film Alien. In 2002, the development of Alien vs. Predator took precedence, and the project remained dormant until 2009 when Scott again showed interest. Spaihts wrote a script for a prequel to the events of the Alien films, but Scott opted for a different direction to avoid repeating cues from those films. In late 2010, Lindelof joined the project to rewrite Spaihts's script, and he and Scott developed a story that precedes the story of Alien but is not directly connected to that franchise. According to Scott, although the film shares "strands of Alien's DNA, so to speak", and takes place in the same universe, Prometheus explores its own mythology and ideas. Read more... - All the Money in the World is a 2017 crime thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and written by David Scarpa, based on John Pearson's 1995 book Painfully Rich: The Outrageous Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Heirs of J. Paul Getty. The film stars Michelle Williams, Christopher Plummer, Mark Wahlberg, and Romain Duris. The film depicts J. Paul Getty's refusal to cooperate with the extortion demands of a group of kidnappers from the organized crime Mafia group 'Ndrangheta, who abducted his grandson John Paul Getty III in 1973.
Principal photography took place from March to August 2017. Kevin Spacey originally portrayed J. Paul Getty, appearing in the film's initial marketing campaign. However, after multiple sexual misconduct allegations were leveled against Spacey, the role was recast with Plummer. Scenes were reshot just a month prior to the film's release. Read more... - Matchstick Men is a 2003 black comedy crime film directed by Ridley Scott, and based on Eric Garcia's 2002 novel of the same name. The film stars Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman.
The film premiered on September 2, 2003 at the 60th Venice International Film Festival and was released in the United States on September 12, 2003. It received generally positive reviews but was a box office disappointment, grossing just $65 million against its $62 million budget. Read more... - Black Hawk Down is a 2001 war film produced and directed by Ridley Scott from a screenplay by Ken Nolan. It is based on the 1999 non-fiction book of the same name by journalist Mark Bowden. As an embedded journalist, he covered the 1993 raid in Mogadishu by the U.S. military, aimed at capturing faction leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid. The ensuing firefight became known as the Battle of Mogadishu. The film features a large ensemble cast, including Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor, Eric Bana, Tom Sizemore, William Fichtner, Jason Isaacs, Tom Hardy in his feature film debut, and Sam Shepard.
Black Hawk Down won two Academy Awards for Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing at the 74th Academy Awards. In 2009, an extended cut of the film was released on DVD. The cut contained an additional eight minutes of footage increasing the running time to 152 minutes. This extended cut has yet to be released on Blu-ray. Read more... - Thelma & Louise is a 1991 American road film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. It stars Geena Davis as Thelma and Susan Sarandon as Louise, two friends who embark on a road trip with unforeseen consequences. The supporting cast include Harvey Keitel, Michael Madsen, and Brad Pitt in his first major film role.
The film became a critical and commercial success, receiving six Academy Award nominations and winning for Best Original Screenplay. Scott was nominated for Best Director, and both Sarandon and Davis were nominated for Best Actress. At its release, the film stirred controversy. At the intersection of several genres, it is now considered a classic. It influenced other films and artistic works and became a landmark of feminist film. In 2016, the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry, finding it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Read more... - Blade Runner is a 1982 neo-noir science fiction film directed by Ridley Scott, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Sean Young, and Edward James Olmos. It is a loose adaptation of Philip K. Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968). The film is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of 2019, in which synthetic humans known as replicants are bio-engineered by the powerful Tyrell Corporation to work on off-world colonies. When a fugitive group of replicants led by Roy Batty (Hauer) escapes back to Earth, burnt-out cop Rick Deckard (Ford) reluctantly agrees to hunt them down while questioning his and the replicants' humanity through his relationship with an advanced model, Rachael (Young).
Blade Runner initially underperformed in North American theaters and polarized critics; some praised its thematic complexity and visuals, while others were displeased with its unconventional pacing and plot. It later became an acclaimed cult film regarded as one of the all-time best science fiction movies. Hailed for its production design depicting a "retrofitted" future, Blade Runner is a leading example of neo-noir cinema. The soundtrack, composed by Vangelis, was nominated in 1983 for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe as best original score. Read more... - The following is a list of unproduced Ridley Scott projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, English film director Ridley Scott has worked on a number of projects which never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects, fell in development hell or are officially canceled. Read more...
- Black Rain is a 1989 American action thriller film directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Douglas, Andy García, Ken Takakura, and Kate Capshaw. The story centers on two NYPD officers who arrest a member of the Yakuza and must escort him back to Japan. Once there, he escapes, and the two officers find themselves dragged deeper and deeper into the Japanese underworld. Read more...
- American Gangster is a 2007 American biographical crime film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by Steven Zaillian. The film is fictionally based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by detective Richie Roberts. The film stars Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe in their first lead acting roles together since 1995's Virtuosity. The film also co-stars Ted Levine, John Ortiz, Josh Brolin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Norman Reedus, Ruby Dee, Lymari Nadal and Cuba Gooding Jr.
Development for the film initially began in 2000, when Universal Pictures and Imagine Entertainment purchased the rights to a New York magazine story about the rise and fall of Lucas. Two years later, screenwriter Steven Zaillian introduced a 170-page scriptment to Scott. Original production plans were to commence in Toronto for budget purposes; however, production eventually relocated permanently to New York City. Because of the film's rising budget Universal canceled production in 2004. After negotiations with Terry George, it was later revived with Scott at the helm in March 2005. Principal photography commenced over a period of five months from July to December 2006; filming took place throughout New York City and concluded in Thailand. Read more... - Kingdom of Heaven is a 2005 epic historical drama film directed and produced by Ridley Scott and written by William Monahan. It stars Orlando Bloom, Eva Green, Ghassan Massoud, Jeremy Irons, David Thewlis, Brendan Gleeson, Iain Glen, Marton Csokas, Liam Neeson, Edward Norton, Michael Sheen, Velibor Topic and Alexander Siddig.
The story is set during the Crusades of the 12th century. A French village blacksmith goes to the aid of the Kingdom of Jerusalem in its defence against the Ayyubid Muslim Sultan, Saladin, who is fighting to claim the city from the Christians; this leads to the Battle of Hattin. The film script is a heavily fictionalised portrayal of the life of Balian of Ibelin (ca. 1143–93). Read more... - The Counselor is a 2013 crime thriller film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Cormac McCarthy. It stars Michael Fassbender as the eponymous Counselor as well as Penélope Cruz, Cameron Diaz, Javier Bardem and Brad Pitt. The film deals with primal human concerns like greed, mortality, love, and trust related to the theme of corruption and profit in a high-stakes criminal environment. Out of greed, the Counselor gets irrevocably in over his head in a drug deal around the troubled Ciudad Juarez, Mexico/Texas border area.
The Counselor was chosen as the closing film at the 2013 Morelia Film Festival and also played the Cork Film Festival. The film was theatrically released on October 25, 2013 and is dedicated to Scott's brother, Tony, who died in 2012. It received polarizing reviews and grossed $71 million worldwide against a budget of $25 million. Read more... - The Duellists is a 1977 British historical drama film and the feature directorial debut of Ridley Scott. It won the Best Debut Film award at the 1977 Cannes Film Festival. The basis of the screenplay is the Joseph Conrad short story "The Duel" (titled "Point of Honor" in the United States) published in A Set of Six. Read more...
- Legend is a 1985 American dark fantasy adventure film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, Tim Curry, David Bennent, Alice Playten, Billy Barty, Cork Hubbert, and Annabelle Lanyon. It is a dark fairy tale and has been described as a return to more original and sometimes disturbing fables originating from the oral tradition of ancient times before reading and writing were widespread.
Although not a commercial success when first released, it won the British Society of Cinematographers Award for Best Cinematography in 1985 for cinematographer Alex Thomson, as well as being nominated for multiple awards: Academy Award for Best Makeup; Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films Saturn Award for Best Makeup; BAFTA Awards for Best Costume Design, Best Makeup Artist, Best Special Visual Effects; DVD Exclusive Awards; and Young Artist Awards. Since its premiere and the subsequent release of the Director's Cut edition, the film has become a cult classic. Read more... - 1492: Conquest of Paradise (in French, 1492 : Christophe Colomb) is a 1992 English-language French-Spanish epic historical drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Roselyne Bosch, which tells the fictionalized story of the travels to the New World by the Italian explorer Christopher Columbus (Gérard Depardieu) and the effect this had on the indigenous peoples of the Americas.
The film was released by Paramount Pictures to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Columbus' voyage. The premiere debuted at almost exactly the same time as Christopher Columbus: The Discovery, often leading to confusion between the two films. Read more... - G.I. Jane is a 1997 American action film directed by Ridley Scott, produced by Largo Entertainment, Scott Free Productions and Caravan Pictures, distributed by Hollywood Pictures and starring Demi Moore, Viggo Mortensen and Anne Bancroft. The film tells the fictional story of the first woman to undergo training in U.S. Navy Special Warfare Group. Read more...
- Robin Hood is a 2010 British-American epic war drama film based on the Robin Hood legend, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, William Hurt, Mark Strong, Mark Addy, Oscar Isaac, Danny Huston, Eileen Atkins, and Max von Sydow. It was released in 12 countries on 12 May 2010, including the United Kingdom and Ireland and was also the opening film at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival the same day. It was released in a further 23 countries the following day, among them Australia, and an additional 17 countries on 14 May 2010, among them the United States and Canada. The film received mixed reviews and made more than $320 million at the box office. Read more...
- A Good Year is a 2006 British-American romantic comedy directed and produced by Ridley Scott. The film stars Russell Crowe, Marion Cotillard, Didier Bourdon, Abbie Cornish, Tom Hollander, Freddie Highmore and Albert Finney. The film is loosely based on the 2004 novel of the same name by British author Peter Mayle. The film was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2006 and in the United States on 10 November 2006 by 20th Century Fox. The film grossed over $42.1 million against its $35 million budget. The film received nominations for the Critics Choice Award for Best Young Actor and the Satellite Award for Best Cinematography. A Good Year was released on DVD on 27 February 2007 by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment. Read more...
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Selected images
Gold Hill, Shaftesbury in the English county of Dorset where Scott filmed the 1973 Hovis television commercial
Sir Ridley Scott, Honorary Doctor, at the Royal College of Art, July 2015
Scott participates in a question and answer session about NASA’s journey to Mars and his film The Martian, 18 August 2015
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