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The following is a list of unproduced Ridley Scott projects in roughly chronological order. During his long career, English film director Ridley Scott has worked on a number of projects that never progressed beyond the pre-production stage under his direction. Some of these projects fell into development hell or were officially canceled.[1][2][3][4]
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Scott's first attempt at a feature film was a medieval-set horror script Castle Accident which he collaborated with writer John Edwards on. Scott was hired to direct by producer Robert Stigwood and the film was set to star the three Bee Gees.[5][6] Though it never came together, Scott would later helm a musical biopic of the groups' lives.[7]
After he couldn't find funding for Castle Accident, Scott turned to a "violent" Canadian black comedy/heist thriller script he wrote called Ronnie and Leo that was to have starred Michael York and Ernest Borgnine. The film was close to being made with nearly $1.7 million in financing, but it never come to fruition.[8][5][6]
Before The Duellists, Scott first developed a separate project with Gerald Vaughan-Hughes based on the story of Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, at the time budgeted at $2.2 million.[6] Both the screenplays for The Gunpowder Plot and The Duellists were completed by 1976 when an executive at Paramount Pictures chose the latter instead since it was deemed less expensive to make.[9] In an audio commentary from 2002, Scott said that he may return to the script someday.[5]
In the mid-1970s, before the beginning of the filming of The Duellists, Scott pitched the idea of a film adaptation of medieval romantic legend of Tristan and Iseult, and he planned to release this film as his second movie.[10] However, the project never materialised at the time, and Scott pitched the idea of Legend during the filming of The Duellists as a replacement of this project.[11] A film of the same story, directed by Kevin Reynolds, was later released in 2006 with Scott as the producer.
Around 1981, Scott was hired to direct a film adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel Dune.[12] However, Scott was finally replaced by David Lynch, and the film was released in 1984.
Herb Jaffe and Miguel Tejada-Flores initially hired Scott to direct Randall Jahnson's script for Dudes, but replaced him with Penelope Spheeris due to creative differences.[13]
In the late 1980s, Scott wanted to direct Jim Uhls's sci-fi action thriller The Train for Carolco. However, Scott left the project to direct Thelma and Louise and Joel Silver bought the rights; he had the script rewritten by Steven E. de Souza and retitled the project as Isobar and The ISOBAR Run. However, it was cancelled due to Carolco's bankruptcy.[14]
Columbia Pictures hired Scott to direct an early version of W. Peter Iliff's screenplay for Point Break under the title Johnny Utah, with Charlie Sheen and James Garner starring. The film went into turnaround for several years after Scott quit the film in 1988.[15][16]
On January 24, 1993, Scott signed a deal with 20th Century Fox to direct a film adaptation of Richard Preston's 1992 New Yorker article "Crisis in the Hot Zone."[17] In late April 1994, Robert Redford and Jodie Foster were in talks for star in the film.[18] However, the project was finally shut down due to many production problems and Foster's departure from it.[19] It was subsequently revived and, in 2019, Scott and Lynda Obst developed the National Geographic miniseries.
On January 26, 1993, Scott was committed to directing Pancho's War, an action-adventure written by Marcel Montecino from a story by Montecino and David Balkan set during the 1916 Mexican Revolution. The spec script, which was described by producer John Goldwyn as "a cross between the Sergio Leone westerns and the Lethal Weapon films," was purchased by Paramount Pictures who had hoped to get the film into production that year for a release the following summer, in 1994.[20]
In February 1997, at a press conference in London, Scott announced that his next feature project would be RKO 281, a behind-the-scenes story of the battle between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst during the making of Citizen Kane.[21] Scott Free Productions originally planned the docudrama as a theatrical movie, based on the documentary The Battle Over Citizen Kane which ran on PBS American Experience series. The original cast consisted of Edward Norton as Welles, Marlon Brando as Hearst, Madonna as Marion Davies, Dustin Hoffman as Herman J. Mankiewicz and Meryl Streep as Hedda Hopper.[22] However, the projected budget in excess of $40 million, on which Scott was insisting, turned off the major studios.[23] HBO eventually agreed to make it as a TV film, albeit with a $12 million budget and the entire cast replaced. Director Benjamin Ross also took over from Scott, who remained as executive producer.[24]
On July 2, 1997, Variety reported that Scott had signed a contract with Warner Bros. to direct the third film adaptation of Richard Matheson's novel I Am Legend.[25] Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached to portray Dr. Robert Neville[25] and Mark Protosevich was attached to write the film,[26] but the project was finally cancelled due to budgetary concerns on March 16, 1998.[27] It was subsequently revived and in 2007 the film was released with Francis Lawrence as director and with Will Smith in the lead role.
According to a 1998 Variety article, Scott had at one point "briefly flirted" with taking the helm of the action-thriller Josiah's Canon, which was later pursued as a project by his brother Tony.[28]
In 2000, Scott was signed by Disney to direct an adventure film from writers Douglas S. Cook and David Weisberg, based on the life of the notorious 17th century pirate Captain Kidd. Variety reported that Jerry Bruckheimer would produce the film in association with Scott Free Productions.[29][30]
In July 2001, producer Dino De Laurentiis was courting Scott to direct his planned biopic of Alexander the Great. Ted Tally was writing the project, based on a trilogy of novels by Valerio Massimo Manfredi.[31]
On October 18, 2001, it was reported that Constantin Film would develop a film version of the 1981 German novel Perfume: The Story of a Murderer as a directing vehicle for Scott. The rights to Patrick Süskind's novel were won in a bidding war by producer Bernd Eichinger. In addition to Scott, the project had also piqued the interest of the likes of such directors as Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, Tim Burton, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Shekhar Kapur and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Eichinger agreed to develop the project with Scott directing and Caroline Thompson writing the script. Though Scott confirmed these plans after completing production on Black Hawk Down, he cautioned that he was not officially attached to the film at the time.[32] The adaptation was later overseen by director Tom Tykwer and realized in 2006, but without the use of Thompson's script.
On October 22, 2001, it was reported that Scott was attached to direct Swift, from a pitch by Stephen Cornwell, and selected it to be the first project in his new development pact with 20th Century Fox. At the time, Swift, which follows a young detective investigating a series of supernatural murders, was viewed as a possible franchise by the studio.[33]
In an interview in January 2002, Scott expressed his desire to make a fifth installment in the Alien franchise.[34] He stated that the fifth film would explain the Aliens' origins and where they were discovered.[34] James Cameron was attached to return as writer and producer.[35] However, the project was finally shelved by 20th Century Fox since they thought that they would ruin the franchise with a fifth film; Alien vs. Predator was released in 2004 instead, as the first installment of the Alien vs. Predator spin-off franchise.
In March 2002, Scott was set to direct and produce the historical epic Tripoli, with William Monahan writing the script about William Eaton’s march during the First Barbary War. Mark Gordon was attached to produce, while Russell Crowe and Ben Kingsley were cast as Eaton and Hamet Karamanli respectively.[36][37][38] The project was shelved so Scott could direct Kingdom of Heaven.
In May 2002, it was reported that Scott would direct an untitled period Western written by Bruce C. McKenna through Scott Free Productions and 20th Century Fox. It was scheduled to go into production following the completion of Scott's Matchstick Men and the unmade Tripoli.[39] The project was later announced as being an adapted from Hampton Sides' non-fiction book Blood and Thunder, with McKenna still on board as writer, and was retooled into a ten-part limited series in development at Scott Free Productions in 2015.[40][41]
In the 2000s, Scott mooted a sequel to 1982's Blade Runner under the title Metropolis.[42]
In June 2005, Scott was set to direct and produce the film adaptation of Robert Kurson’s book Shadow Divers with William Broyles writing the script for 20th Century Fox.[43] On 4 August 2010, Scott was replaced by Robert Schwentke as director of Shadow Divers with Simon Kinberg producing,[44] and in November 2010, Mark Bomback will write a new draft of the script under Schwentke's supervision.[45] However, plans fell into development hell and its fate is unknown after the Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed.[46]
In May 2006, Scott and his brother Tony were set to produce the film adaptation of Richard B. Lewis's novel The Killing Sea for 20th Century Fox, with Scott possibly directing.[47]
The miniseries adaptation of Robert Littell's The Company was initially developed by writer Ken Nolan around 2006–7 in the form of a feature film for Scott to direct, after previously collaborating together on Black Hawk Down. However, Littell's 897-page book deemed too difficult make into a two-hour film, so the project was expanded to six hours and produced by Scott Free Productions for television instead.[48]
In April 2007, it was reported that Ridley Scott was attached to direct and produce screenwriter Tom Rob Smith’s debut novel Child 44 for Fox 2000.[49]
In August 2007, Fox 2000 and Ridley Scott's Scott Free Productions purchased the film rights to Justin Cronin's novel The Passage for $1.75 million, long before the book was completed.[50] In 2009, John Logan, writer of Scott's Gladiator, was set to adapt the novel for Scott to potentially direct.[51] The adaptation was ultimately produced in the form of a TV series, with Scott serving as executive producer, alongside Liz Heldens and Matt Reeves.[52]
In November 2007, Fox 2000 hired Scott to direct Stones, a supernatural thriller revolving around the mysterious destruction of ancient religious sites scripted by Matt Cirulnick, to be produced by Scott Free. The film was slated to resume development after the Writers Guild of America strike concluded.[53]
In March 2008, Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio were set to reteam, after their collaboration on Body of Lies, for the dark thriller The Low Dweller for Relativity Media. Scott and DiCaprio were to produce the film, with DiCaprio attached to star and Scott eyeing to direct from a spec script by Brad Ingelsby. Set in Indiana in the mid-1980s, the story centers on a man (to be played by DiCaprio) who tries to adapt to regular life after being released from jail, only to find someone from his past pursuing him to settle a score.[54]
In April 2008, Scott was set to direct the movie adaptation of Tom Epperson's crime novel The Kind One, from a screenplay by Epperson and Casey Affleck attached to star as Danny Landon.[55] There has been no further announcements since.
In late 2008, Sigourney Weaver hinted in an interview with MTV that she and Scott were working on an Alien spin-off film, which would focus on the chronicles of Ellen Ripley rather than on the Aliens, but the continuation of Ripley's story has not materialised.[56]
In June 2009, The New York Times revealed that Scott along with his now-deceased brother Tony Scott were working on a web series inspired by Blade Runner with episodes of five or ten minutes, that, according to Ridley, it could have also been broadcast on television.[57] In February 2010, it was reported that the production of the series was cancelled due to funding problems.
In August 2009, Scott planned to direct an adaptation of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World set in a dystopian London with Leonardo DiCaprio.[58] However, as of 2013[update], the project was put on hold while Scott became involved with other projects.[59] The project was revived as a TV series released in 2020.[60]
In October 2009, Columbia Pictures acquired the rights to produce a film remake of the U.K. miniseries Red Riding, adapted from David Peace's Red Riding Quartet novel series.[61] Steve Zaillian was in negotiations to write the script at the time, with Scott attached to direct. In May 2011, it was reported that James Vanderbilt would write the script for the film.[62] There have been no further announcements since.
On April 4, 2010, Scott revealed his hopes of making a sequel to Robin Hood and more films after that.[63] On May 13, 2010, Russell Crowe expressed his desire to reprise his role as Robin Longstride/Robin Hood.[64] However, plans for the sequel fell into development hell.
In July 2010, Warner Bros. had offered Scott the chance to direct The Wolf of Wall Street, with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the male lead,[65] but Scott eventually abandoned the project and was later replaced by Martin Scorsese.[66]
On 14 December 2010, Scott was set to direct and produce the film adaptation of Paulette Jiles's The Color of Lightning, from a script by Diana Ossana and James Schamus.[67] However, plans for The Color of Lightning fell into development hell and its fate is unknown after the acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed.[46]
On 30 March 2011, Scott was set to produce and possibly direct a biopic of Gertrude Bell from a Jeffrey Caine script.[68] On 17 November 2011, Angelina Jolie was set to portray Bell,[69] however, plans fell into development hell and its fate is unknown after the Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed.[46]
On 12 May 2011, Scott was set to direct a film adaptation of Moira Young's Blood Red Road book from a script by Jack Thorne for the UK division of Scott Free Productions.[70] There has been no further announcements since.
On 17 May 2011, Scott was set to direct and produce a Cold War thriller about the Reykjavík Summit, from a script by Kevin Hood for Headline Films.[71] On 29 August 2012, it was announced that Mike Newell would replace Scott as director of Reykjavík, with Michael Douglas[72] and Christoph Waltz[73] as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, respectively. On 13 May 2014, Baltasar Kormákur replaced Newell as director.[74] However, the project fell into development hell.
On 17 November 2011, Scott was set to direct and produce the assassination thriller about Simon Mann's coup against the president of Equatorial Guinea in 2004. Gerard Butler was set to star as Mann, and Robert Edwards would have written the script.[75] There have been no further announcements since.
On 20 December 2012, Showtime ordered Paul Attanasio's series The Vatican, with a pilot directed by Ridley Scott. The series would be executive-produced by Attanasio, Scott and David W. Zucker;[76] Kyle Chandler was cast as Cardinal Thomas Duffy, Matthew Goode as Papal Secretary Bernd Koch,[77] Bruno Ganz as Pope Sixtus VI, Anna Friel, Rebecca Ferguson, Sebastian Koch and Ewen Bremner as the leads. On 12 December 2013, Showtime did not greenlight the series.[78] In January 2014, Showtime president David Nevins said this about the cancellation: "One of the fundamental issues with The Vatican is that the world changed on us. That show was conceived and written while Pope Benedict was still in charge of the Vatican, and it was conceived in a world that now would feel very dated."[79]
On 26 February 2013, it was reported that Fox was wrapping up a deal for Kieran Fitzgerald to write the script for a reality-based disaster film loosely inspired by the BBC faux-documentary The Day Britain Stopped, which was being developed as a potential directing vehicle for Scott. Scott would have produced the film with Steven Zaillian.[80] On 3 December 2014, the film was titled Cascade, with Baltasar Kormákur set to direct and Cate Blanchett rumored to be the lead.[81] However, the project fell into development hell and its fate is unknown after the Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed.[46]
On 7 November 2013, Scott had an idea of an NFL concussion film, inspired by Dr. Bennet Omalu's study about former NFL stars Junior Seau and Dave Duerson, both of whom committed suicide after suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). Scott was set to direct, following Exodus: Gods and Kings, while he and Giannina Facio were looking for an A-list writer.[82] Peter Landesman eventually replaced Scott as director, resulting in the 2015 film.[83]
On 23 July 2015, Scott was set to direct the adaptation of Don Winslow's The Cartel from a Shane Salerno script,[84] and produce The Power of the Dog.[85] However, both projects fell into development hell, and it has since been announced that Winslow will produce a TV series based on The Cartel for FX.[86]
On 23 September 2015, Scott said he was planning two sequels to Prometheus, which would lead into the first Alien film, adding: "Maybe [there will] even [be] a fourth film before we get back into the Alien franchise."[87][88] In November 2015, Scott confirmed that Alien: Covenant would be the first of three additional films in the Alien prequel series, before linking up with the original Alien[89][90] and stated that the Prometheus sequels would reveal who created the xenomorph aliens.[91] The screenplay for the third prequel film, called Alien: Awakening, was written during production of Alien: Covenant and was finished in 2017, with production scheduled to begin in 2018.[92] In March 2017, Scott said: "If you really want a franchise, I can keep cranking it for another six. I'm not going to close it down again. No way."[93] In May, Scott announced that Neill Blomkamp's sequel to James Cameron's film Aliens had been cancelled. In a later interview, he said he would have participated as a producer, but that 20th Century Fox had decided not to pursue the project.[94] In an interview, Scott confirmed the next film sequel will include surviving engineers who were away from their planet while David destroyed its indigenous population.[95] Michael Reyes, writing for Cinema Blend in July 2017, quoted Scott stating that if Sigourney Weaver could reprise her role as Ellen Ripley in the prequels, then "Well, we're heading toward the back end of the first Alien so [using CGI] may be feasible. Ripley's going to be somebody's daughter, obviously. We're coming in from the back end. The time constraints of what's the time between this film, where we leave David going off heading for that colony, I think you're probably two films out from even considering her."[96] According to reports, there will be only one additional prequel film (Alien: Awakening) before a soft reboot is made to the Alien universe, consisting of a new series of films with brand-new and original characters as well as a new setting.[97] In the audio commentary for Alien: Covenant, Scott confirmed that a sequel to Alien: Covenant, tentatively referred to as Alien: Covenant 2, was being written by John Logan, with Fassbender, Waterston and McBride set to reprise their roles. Scott also confirmed that the film would cap his prequel series, leading directly into the events of Alien.[98][99] By September 2017, chief-executive-officer of 20th Century Fox Stacey Snider, stated that although Alien: Covenant was a financial disappointment, the studio intends to proceed with Scott's sequel.[100] In late September 2017, screen-graphics designer Carl Braga (aka HumanMedia) announced that the project had been delayed (at best).[101][102] Michael Nordine, writing for Indiewire in October 2017, quoted Scott as stating that Alien: Covenant 2 will focus more on the androids and A.I.s as opposed to the xenomorphs. Scott said: "I think the evolution of the Alien himself is nearly over, but what I was trying to do was transcend and move to another story, which would be taken over by A.I.s. The world that the A.I. might create as a leader if he finds himself on a new planet. We have actually quite a big layout for the next one."[103] In November 2018, Empire announced that the film would take place on LV-426, with the extraterrestrial Engineers being featured in the film and being in pursuit of David following his nefarious actions against Planet 4.[104] At the 2019 CinemaCon, it was stated that, after its acquisition of 21st Century Fox, Disney "will continue to create new stories" in the Alien series.[105] In May 2019, Variety reported that another prequel was reportedly "in the script phase", with Scott attached to direct.[106] In September 2020, Scott confirmed that a new Alien film was in development.[107] In August 2021, however, a news report concluded that a sequel is currently uncertain.[108][109]
In January 2016, Scott was in early negotiations to direct the film version of the 1968 British TV series The Prisoner.[110]
In May 2016, it was announced that Scott would direct an adaptation of the Western novel Wraiths of the Broken Land, with Drew Goddard writing the script and co-producing with Genre Films.[111] However, the project fell into development hell and its fate is unknown after the Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed.[46]
On January 30, 2017, Scott was on the list to replace Ben Affleck as director of The Batman, possibly with Affleck starring, but Matt Reeves got the job instead,[112] with Robert Pattinson replacing Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman.
On April 2017, Scott was set to direct a film about the Battle of Britain for 20th Century Studios from a Matthew Orton script, which was described as a "passion project" for the director.[113] However, the project fell into development hell and its fate was unknown after the Acquisition of 21st Century Fox by Disney was completed.[46] As of October 31, 2024, the project was still in development, under a new script being written by Joe Penhall.[41]
In October 2017, Denis Villeneuve said that he expected a third film would be made if 2049 was successful.[114] Hampton Fancher, who wrote both films, said he was considering reviving an old story idea involving Deckard traveling to another country.[114] Ford said that he would be open to returning if he liked the script.[114] In January 2018, Scott stated that he had "another [story] ready to evolve and be developed, [that] there is certainly one to be done for sure," referring to a third Blade Runner film.[115]
Scott had implied that he'd been asked to supervise reshoots of Bohemian Rhapsody, after the firing of director Bryan Singer.[116]
In January 2018, it was reported Scott was in negotiations to direct The Merlin Saga, based on the T. A. Barron books for Disney, with Philippa Boyens as the writer.[117] In October 2021, it was announced that Scott had departed the film, owing to his busy schedule and that Michael Matthews would direct the film, with Chris Weitz writing the latest draft.[118]
On 15 March 2018, Scott took over directing the Oni Press comic book movie Queen & Country from Craig Viveiros.[119] On 19 June 2018, Sylvia Hoeks was rumored to be Tara Chace.[120] However, the film fell into development hell and its fate is unknown after Disney's acquisition of 21st Century Fox was completed.[46]
On 24 October 2018, Scott signed on to direct the Lynsey Addario biopic It's What I Do, from Peter Craig's script for Warner Bros. after Steven Spielberg abandoned the project, and wanted Scarlett Johansson to replace Jennifer Lawrence as Addario; Johansson dropped out the following day, after finding out that it was being funded by the Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman.[121] There have been no further announcements since.
On March 17, 2021, it was announced that Scott would executive produce the World War Two miniseries Roads to Freedom, based on the works of military historian Antony Beevor, in addition to directing the first episode, with Beevor and Steven Knight writing all ten episodes.[122] There has been no further announcements since.
Scott had initially signed on to direct episodes of the series Blade Runner 2099.[123]
On November 6, 2023, Scott told The New Yorker that he was in the process of storyboarding a Western project,[9] and on November 14, he told Deadline that he would begin shooting this project in March 2024.[124] By June 2024, costume designer Janty Yates confirmed the project, titled Freewalkers, was shelved due to weather and scheduling conditions. "It's a film that's not going to happen because it's set in the snow," she said. "By the time we prepped it, we would have been shooting in mid-summer."[125]
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