Ridley Scott says he was pissed when he learned of James Cameron’s ALIENS plans

Ridley Scott launched on Alien franchise with its classic sci-fi horror film in 1979. Several years later James Cameron stepped in to work with the franchise and directed the 1986 sci-fi action film, Aliens. I love both movies, but they are so different from each other!

It’s no secret that Ridley Scott wasn’t happy with Cameron Aliens movie, and recently talked about how pissed he was when he first learned of Cameron’s plans for the film. In an interview with Deadline, she said:

“Well, Jim’s all that, the way he designs, his whole process is The Ride. When I heard that someone else was doing it, I was actually trying to develop something. When Jim called me and said, listen …he was very kind but said, “It’s hard, your beast is so unique. It’s hard to make it scary again, now familiar ground.”

“So he said, ‘I’m going to take a more action approach, a little military. I said, okay. And that was the first time I thought, welcome to Hollywood.'”

Scott wasn’t happy and continued to talk about his initial reaction and how hurt he felt. At the same time, he was also struggling to carry forward his original vision Blade Runner to life:

“I was pissed. I wouldn’t tell Jim, but I think I was hurt. I knew I had done something very special, very one-off. I was hurt, deeply hurt, actually because at that moment, I think I got something damaged because I was trying to recover from Blade Runner, where I thought I had actually achieved something really special, and then the previews were a disaster. [my cut of] the film sat on a shelf for almost, I think 10-12 years later, until it was discovered by chance at the Santa Monica Film Festival. Someone said: let’s dig out the old print and run it for fun. And they called Warner. And with the utmost respect to Warner, they had missed the fucking downside, which was, what? And someone panicked and reached into a drawer, pulled out the first can with Blade Runner on it, never checked it, and sent it to Santa Monica.”

“They performed it. It was a cut copy with part Jerry Goldsmith on it and part my great musician. And it was a copy where we had come to the end of the short sections and were trying to cut and re-edit, so to speak, saves the film. And this version had no voiceover and had what I call the film noir ending, where Deckard stares at the origami in his hand, which is a unicorn, nods in agreement and if he goes off with his girlfriend. So he was rediscovered. It went out like a cannon shot and went everywhere. And of course I know that. I knew then that it was a very special form of science fiction. It’s never been done like that and it became a sort of reference point for most science fiction TV shows and movies. I mean, I understood the social order of the dystopian society very well, and I think it had never been done before. Now it’s like that. copied again and again Still.”

Don’t worry, there’s no bad blood between Scott and Cameron now, and the director added: “Jim and I talk a lot. We’re not exactly friends, but we talk and he’s a good guy.”

THE Alien the franchise is currently going through another evolution with a TV series developed by Noah Hawley and a new standalone Alien: Romulus director’s film Fede Alvarez. Of the film, Scott has said in the past that “it’s freaking awesome.”

There had been rumors that Scott might return for another Alien movie, but those plans appear to have fallen by the wayside due to Disney doing its part with the 20th Century Studios franchise.