“Tell me about this movie in two sentences”

When you’re pitching a movie to Ridley Scott, you better move fast. After all, the 86-year-old has a lot on his plate.

“I would say, ‘Narrow it down to something very simple and brief — tell me this movie in two sentences,’” says the acclaimed and prolific British director, who has directed: blade runner, alien and Napoleon. “You should ignite the idea, and you must have a fuse in it – a time bomb. When you just have [characters] Doing something for the sake of something is dangerous.

For example, the spark could be that a group of young scavengers are stranded on an abandoned space station that is about to plummet into the planet’s rings within 36 hours – the plot of a hit summer movie Alien: RomulusProduced by Scott and his Scott Free Productions, the film surprised the industry by grossing $350 million at the global box office.

The film is also one of Scott Foley’s recent examples of finding new life in director’s classics, such as FX’s upcoming Alien: Earth series from Fa Ge Noah Hawley, series executive, upcoming release on Amazon Blade Runner: 2099 Showrunner Silka Luisa and Scott’s own highly anticipated series Gladiator II — The long-awaited sequel to the 2000 blockbuster, which the director calls “the best thing I’ve ever done,” opens Nov. 22.

“Gladiator Below budget. (Paramount insiders say the net budget was $250 million.) Of course, Scott is already developing another sequel.

When Scott was asked how he felt about returning to a producer role when some of the movie worlds he helped create became TV shows dominated by others, he took it surprisingly calmly. everything. “I’ve been creating rhythms visually for a while,” says Scott, who splits his time between Los Angeles and France. “I knew exactly what I was doing and how it had an impact. From that point on, I had no hope but to keep it alive. I didn’t care what the platform was. I wanted to go home and see it all. These themes are preserved permanently, which is very healthy.

The current Scott Free was founded in 1995, but its roots date back to the 1970s. “The name ‘Scott Free’ was originally the name of my brother’s company,” Scott said, referring to his late brother and director Tony Scott. “I said, ‘This is a great name; why don’t we build a long-form company based on it?'”

In a sitdown with Scott Free leadership at his longtime office in West Hollywood, company executives said they have expanded virtually on every front amid a post-pandemic industry shrinkage. “We think this is a period of growth,” said Justin Alvarado Brown, president and chief operating officer of Scott Free. “We kept going while everyone was holding back, and we were also lucky enough to have a lot of stuff come into production that year that allowed us to do that.”

If there’s a common thread among Scott Free’s productions, executives say they’re making literary, filmmaker-driven projects that seem worthy of Sir Ridley Scott Get involved. “Every time we look at material, it needs to feel like it was authored, it needs to feel like there’s some kind of signature in the writing,” said film president Michael Pruss. “We got every sci-fi and action movie in the world because of Ridley, but we were really genre agnostic. We were just looking for something unique or interesting and indelible.

Still, Scott noted that he doesn’t believe in a magic formula when it comes to selecting projects, saying it’s always like spinning a roulette wheel (at least to some extent). “All of this is betting money on black people,” Scott said. “In other words: It’s intuition and research, but beyond that, you don’t really know.”

for Alien: RomulusScott considered his character to be a useful guiding force for director Fede Alvarez, who said in a recent interview that Scott advised on the early stages of the film. Editing after editing made him “hit a brick wall”. Then Alvarez realized Scott’s ideas were right and implemented them.

“I can sniff out things that might be too smart or not smart enough,” Scott said. “Part of my job is knowing the edge cases. Also, knowing when something is too long or too complex. That’s my job as a producer—actually, as an editor. In that regard, I’ve always Respect the director, if you respect, they will listen to you.

One thing that’s unique about Scott Free is that it’s essentially independent — the company hasn’t had a partnership with 20th Century since 2009, although it has a decades-old first-look deal with 20th Century, which Scott Free recently Another multi-year deal was renewed. “We don’t have a studio telling us, ‘You can do this, you can’t do that,'” chief creative officer David Zucker noted. “Preemption trading gives us the opportunity to go on a more inevitable production track, but the idea is to make sure we put the project first. It’s a parenting model: What’s in the best interest of the child? So when we’re faced with When it comes to talent, we think, “How can we be successful? “”

A sore spot for Scott and his team is their lack of ownership of the space alien and blade runner Executives blame some of the company’s previous management. Whenever a new sequel or prequel is explored, Scott Free has to earn his place on the team again. “I should lock them up because [Steven] Spielberg and Jurassicand everything he’s done, James Cameron has done with what he’s had,” Scott said. “I resurrected a dead man alien [franchise] and Prometheus and Alien: Covenantwe should have rejoined ownership then but we didn’t because someone was careless.

Brown added that it’s his team’s responsibility to ensure that Scott Free remains involved in the director’s legacy. “It doesn’t make sense to make another movie without Ridley and us,” he said of the future alien and blade runnerEntry.

When asked what works on the small screen, TV president Clayton Krueger said: “What we often find in TV is that it’s not the creative business, it’s the execution business. So it’s That’s where we put a lot of effort into – identifying artists that we knew could create a series. But, naturally, Scott offered a more blunt assessment: “Television is a big basket full of balls,” he said. explain. “Something like this happens from time to time. Montenegro family and game of Thrones This affects everyone, and then they rush to that ball to replicate it, but it’s too late. That’s my job as a director – what’s the next dance?

In painful news, HBO Max has axed the company’s acclaimed sci-fi drama Raised by wolves After two seasons in 2022. “We’re really in the beginning stages creatively. We’ve broken down the season, we’ve brought the team together. We feel like the show is really finding its footing.

Scott’s long-standing record of No. 20 (now owned by Disney) was no accident. Director’s first hit film, 1979 alienwho was at the studio at the time and remained loyal to the company through many turmoils over the decades. “I think I’ve made 13 movies for Fox, which is probably the most movies any director has ever made for a studio,” Scott said. “It’s kind of like running a restaurant. When they pay your overhead, you’d better be eating there every night. I was at the table with Fox every night. I think that’s why I’m so cool to them Value. You win some, you lose some, but overall they pay off for what I do.

Steve Asbell, president of 20th Century Pictures, admired Scott’s dedication and first worked with the director in 2005. Heaven. “There are no more innovative, brave, and fierce filmmakers in the industry,” Asbell said. “He and Tony crafted Scott Free to reflect their creative integrity as filmmakers, and the company has long been a cornerstone of 20th’s productions.”

While Scott Free isn’t exactly a family business, Scott’s son Luke Scott, 55, works in its UK office and is responsible for the company’s advertising business and long-term strategy, as well as being a director (“I’m the overlord,” he jokes ). Scott’s 46-year-old daughter, director Jordan Scott, wrote and directed their recent adaptation of Nicholas Hogg’s psychological cult thriller a sacrifice. Son Jake Scott, 59, directed the 2021 documentary Kipchoge: The final milestone.

Scott Free’s instantly recognizable watercolor-style business card, created by Italian artist Gianluigi Toccafondo, depicts a pacing, smoking shadow before transforming into a bird. Scott recently rehired the artist to create some exciting animated titles. Gladiator II. “I called him and asked him, ‘Are you still alive and want to do this?'” Scott recalled. “I asked him to come from [the original] Gladiator So now you were “being entertained” [the action even starts]”.

Scott’s next project is his long-gestating biopic about 1970s disco supergroup the Bee Gees, which will begin filming for Paramount early next year. Scott Free’s busy schedule means he’s continuing to look for other top filmmakers to tackle projects they’re developing (one name on the company’s list of dream collaborators: Andor Showrunner Tony Gilroy). “I know what I’m going to do in the next three years,” Scott said. “They’ve been written and ready to go. So now we should be looking for big directors who can handle these kinds of budgets. You can have the best horse in the world, but if you don’t have a good jockey, the horse won’t win.

His company is developing a number of projects that it wants Scott to handle personally, and has been making a special effort to help Scott realize his dream of directing Westerns (over the years, Scott Free developed Cormac McCarthy’s bloodline On the TV side, there’s Hampton Sides’ Western epic blood and thunderbut none were approved). “I’m a Western fanatic,” Scott said, “but I haven’t done it yet.”

Scott executives note that period pieces remain the hardest items to sell. “A friend said of period plans, ‘They never buy, but they always make it,'” Zucker said, noting FX’s recent success general As an enviable example.

Looking ahead, the team has several films in post-production, including Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, age of water (starring Imogen Poots in the coming-of-age story of a swimmer struggling to escape abuse), directed by Michael Pearce echo valley (Julianne Moore plays a mother who goes to great lengths to cover up a murder), and director Michael Dawes’ trap house (Dave Bautista and Bobby Cannavale star as undercover DEA agents whose rebellious teens pull off a dangerous cartel).

Scott also revealed that he is developing a new alien Following the movie released on the 20th Romulus‘s success, plus a ‘Battle of Britain’ film written by Joe Penhall, as well as a previously announced thriller bomb From Kevin McMullin.

On the television front, Scott Free recently released the non-fiction documentary Witt’s End: The Hunt for the Killer aired on Hulu and completed its third season on AMC fear anthology series (titled this Horror: The Silver Demon)a fourth season is in development. It’s also working on two Apple TV+ projects: Peter Craig’s drug thief (before sunk spring), starring Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura as two friends who pose as DEA agents to pull off drug heists (Scott directed the pilot ), while Steve Thompson’s main goal, Leo Woodall plays a mathematics student who discovers a revolutionary hacking algorithm. The company is also venturing into the real-life realm, specifically looking for opportunities to turn iconic scripted projects into unscripted ideas (similar to Squid Game: Challenge).

“Everything we do is part chaos and part magic,” Pruss said. “I like the fact that we’re still pushing the envelope and we’re trying things that have never been done before.”

This story appears in the October 30 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.