Sir Ridley Scott (born November 30, 1937 in South Shields) is an influential British film director and producer.
Career
Scott initially studied, until 1958, at the West Hartlepool College of Art. He was to progress to a photography course at London's Royal College of Art for the 1960s. There, he was to contribute to the college magazine ARK and help to establish its film department. For his final show he made a black and white short film 'The Boy on the Bicycle' starring his brother Tony. The film's main visual elements would become features of Scott's later work. After graduation he secured a traineeship as a set designer with the BBC leading him to work on the popular television series Z-Cars. He was also assigned to design the second Doctor Who serial, The Daleks, which would have entailed realising the famous alien creatures. However, shortly before he was due to start work a schedule conflict meant that he was replaced on the serial by Raymond Cusick.
Along with Sir Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson, Hugh Johnson and his younger brother Tony Scott, he established an advertising company. Having cut his teeth on UK television commercials in the 1970s—most notably the 1974 Hovis advert "Bike Round" (New World Symphony) filmed in Shaftesbury—he graduated to Hollywood, where he produced and directed a number of top boxoffice films.
His first feature, The Duellists, was produced in Europe and made limited impact in the US. He planned next to adapt an opera, but after seeing Star Wars, he became convinced of the potential of large scale effects driven films and accepted the directing job of Alien that gave him an international hit. After a year working on the film adaptation of Dune, Scott signed to direct Blade Runner even though he was reluctant to follow up with another science-fiction film. The film was a flop on initial release but achieved cult film status on video. In 1993, he released the Blade Runner Director's Cut, which some consider a vast improvement over the original version released in theaters; however, others feel the original with Harrison Ford's narration was the better film.
After "Blade Runner," Scott directed the classic "1984" commercial announcing the Apple Macintosh, which aired during the 1984 Super Bowl. The commercial is consistently ranked #1 in ad lists. TV Guide ranked it as the greatest commercial of all time.
His striking visual style, incorporating a detailed approach to production design and innovative, atmospheric lighting, has been tremendously influential on an entire subsequent generation of filmmakers — many of whom have simply imitated him outright.
In 1995 Scott, together with his brother, Tony Scott, formed the film and television production company Scott Free Productions in Los Angeles. All of his subsequent feature films, starting with White Squall, have been produced under the Scott Free banner.
The huge success of Scott's film Gladiator (2000) has been credited with the revival of the nearly defunct genre of the "sword and sandal" historical epic. In 2005, Scott attempted to follow it up with the less successful Kingdom of Heaven, a movie about the Crusades that consciously sought to connect history to current events. While on location in Morocco during the filming Scott reported receiving death threats from Islamist extremists. [1] It was reported that the Moroccan government sent hundreds of soldiers to protect the set and crew. However, the Moroccan cavalry were actually on hand as extras in the epic battle-scenes.
Although some of his films have been highly praised, others have been less successful with audiences and critics. G.I. Jane and Hannibal are the two major works most often attacked by critics, while 1492: Conquest of Paradise was a major commercial failure. Legend (1985) was, like Blade Runner three years before, an initial box-office disaster, but it too has since found cult status thanks to Jerry Goldsmith's critically acclaimed (but rarely heard) score, and a 2002 revised "director's cut" that is closer to Scott's original vision.
Scott has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing. He was knighted in the 2003 New Year Honours.
His latest movie, named "All the Invisible Children", is an ambitious multi-national project consisting of 7 short movies directed by 7 different directors from different countries, Scott is supposedly directing the British segment with his daughter, Jordan. The other directors are John Woo, Spike Lee, Mehdi Charef, Emir Kusturica, Kátia Lund, Stefano Veneruso.
Scott is Currently teaming up again with actor Russell Crowe, directing the movie A Good Year, which is based on the best selling book.
Currently 5 members of the Scott family are directors, all working for RSA.
Trademarks
Although Scott is often known for the striking visuals appearing on his films, other trademarks on his behalf are:
- Strong female characters featured often in his movies.
- Extensive use of the two camera "V" set-up, allowing actors to perform more fluidly.
- Casts Giannina Facio, his partner in life, in all his movies since Gladiator.
- Gets involved personally in the casting.
- Likes to work with actors who have a strong theater background and/or drama school graduates.
- Like Stanley Kubrick, Scott is known for repeating the takes sometimes by the double digits. This was more evident on Blade Runner, the crew nick-named the movie "Blood Runner" because of this.
- Extensive use of fans and fanlike objects (in Blade Runner and Black Rain)
- Extensive use of smoke (in Alien, Blade Runner and Black Rain)
- Frequently uses music by either Jerry Goldsmith (Alien / Legend), Vangelis (Blade Runner/ 1492: Conquest of Paradise) or Hans Zimmer (Black Rain/ Thelma & Louise/Gladiator/ Hannibal / Black Hawk Down / Matchstick Men).
- Actors who have worked with Scott often consider that he spends more time with the sets than with the actors, among such actors is Harrison Ford, who complained that his relationship with Scott left a lot to desire. Writer Paul M. Sammon, known for his work on Future Noir , commented about this, stating that Scott's relationship with his actors has improved considerably over the years.
Filmography
Upcoming films
Released films
External links
