Inside Ridley Scott’s Producing Empire: “Tell Me the Film in Two Sentences”
Behind the scenes of his production company Scott Free: How the iconic director picks his projects, and his one real business regret.
When pitching a movie to Ridley Scott, you had better be quick about it. The 86-year-old has a lot on his plate, after all.
“I say, ‘Narrow it down to something very simple and brief — tell me the film in two sentences,’ ” says the renowned and prolific British director of such films as Blade Runner, Alien and Napoleon. “You should light the idea up, and within that you’ve got to have a fuse — a time bomb. When you just have [characters] doing something for something’s sake, that’s dangerous.” Related Stories Movies 'Gladiator II': Critics Mostly Give Thumbs Up to Ridley Scott's Epic Blockbuster Sequel Movies 'Gladiator II' Review: Paul Mescal and a Scene-Stealing Denzel Washington in Ridley Scott's Entertaining but Imitative Sequel
A lit fuse could be, for instance, a group of young scavengers trapped on a derelict space station that’s going to crash into a planet’s rings in 36 hours — the plot of the summer hit Alien: Romulus, which was produced by Scott and his Scott Free production company and surprised the industry by earning $350 million globally.
