Ridley Scott Says He’s Done Making ‘Alien’ Movies

Ridley Scott is finished with the Alien franchise.

After directing the eponymous 1979 sci-fi/horror flick, the 87-year-old filmmaker walked away from the Alien series until returning for the 2012 prequel Prometheus and its follow-up Alien: Covenant in 2017, though Scott now thinks he’s “done enough“ with the Alien franchise.

Speaking with ScreenRant, he said: “A number of years after [Alien], I said, ‘I’m going to resurrect this,’ [and wrote] Prometheus from scratch – a blank sheet of paper. Damon Lindelof and I sat then hammered out Prometheus.

“It was very present and very welcome. The audience really wanted more. I said, ‘It needs to fly.’ No one was coming for it, [and] I went once again [and made] Alien: Covenant, and it worked too.”

“Where it’s going now, I think I’ve done enough, and I just hope it goes further.”

After Scott’s exit from the Alien franchise following the original movie, the series was passed to a handful of different directors, with James Cameron helming the 1986 sequel Aliens, David Fincher working on Alien 3 in 1992, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet directing Alien: Resurrection in 1997.

Following Alien: Resurrection, the series crossed over with the Predator franchise for the flicks Alien vs. Predator in 2004, and Aliens vs Predator: Requiem in 2007.

READ MORE: Every Alien Movie, Ranked From Worst to Best

However, Scott admitted he wasn’t a fan of what came after Cameron’s Aliens.

He explained: “It is spreading like wildfire, and not really. I think I felt it was deadened after 4. I think mine was pretty damn good, and I think Jim’s was good, and I have to say the rest were not very good.”

“And I thought, ‘F—, that’s the end of a franchise which should be as important as bloody Star Trek or Star Wars, which I think is phenomenal. At least, I think the first one by George [Lucas] is seminal – it was as seminal as 2001. To me, it was that important in terms of film language and where you go next.”

Reflecting on Alien, Scott revealed he was the fifth director who was asked to helm the movie, with the studio first offering the job to M*A*S*H’s Robert Altman.

He said: “I’m fascinated [by] very good comics and the best in the world was probably Jean Giraud Moebius. Moebius was a French comics man who was just genius.”

“I was staring at these, and suddenly I was offered Alien out of the blue. And because designer is in my blood and DNA, I just knew what to do with it.”

“And I was the fifth f—ing choice. Why you offered Robert Altman Alien, God only knows. Altman said, ‘Are you kidding? I’m not going to do this,’ and I went, ‘Are you kidding? I have to do this.’”