Sir Ridley Scott has been his usual candid self when discussing the state of the film industry, declaring that most movies being made today ‘are s**t’.
The Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind the likes of Gladiator, Blade Runner, and Alien, was reflecting on his career during a talk at the BFI Southbank on Sunday, attended by Metro, as part of a special season celebrating his work.
Having worked at the forefront in Hollywood for several decades now, the 87-year-old director has seen a lot of change over his career.
Discussing the increased output of films around the world nowadays, in the age of streaming, he observed: ‘The quantity of movies that are made today, literally globally – millions. Not thousands, millions… and most of it is s**t.’
He continued: ‘80% – 60% – eh, 40% is the rest, and 25% of that 40 is not bad, and 10% is pretty good, and the top 5% is great. I’m not sure about the proportion of what I’ve just said, but in the 1940s when there were maybe 300 films a year made, 70% of them were similar.
‘Because I think a lot of films today are saved and made more expensive by digital effects, because what they haven’t got is a great thing on paper first. Get it on paper!’
It’s a theme Sir Ridley returned to later in the event – which was briefly interrupted by an evacuation when the fire alarm went off – when he declared that audiences were ‘drowning in mediocrity’.
When asked if there was a film he liked to re-watch for comfort, he responded: ‘Well, actually, right now, I’m finding mediocrity – we’re drowning in mediocrity. And so what I do – it’s a horrible thing – but I’ve started watching my own movies, and actually they’re pretty good! And also, they don’t age.
‘I watched Black Hawk [Down] the other night and I thought, “How in the hell did I manage to do that?”. But I think occasionally a good one will happen, [and] it’s like a relief that there’s somebody out there who’s doing a good movie.’
During the chat, he also confirmed he has no plans to retire from making films, by replying when he was asked what made him happy: ‘Not stopping.’
He also revealed that his favourite thing to eat was yoghurt and blueberries because he ‘got over food years ago’.
‘I mean, I eat to stay as fit as I can,’ he added, while sharing that the closest he’d come to considering a retirement plan was with his vineyard in France, near Provence – but admitted retirement for him ‘was impossible’.
‘To me, the vineyard would be my retirement occupation, but I ain’t gonna retire,’ he clarified, to a vigorous round of applause.
In terms of his upcoming movies, Sir Ridley has already completed production on his upcoming post-apocalyptic movie with Jacob Elordi, The Dog Stars.
He also teased a little about what he has in store for Gladiator 3, in terms of the story, explaining that he only considers doing a sequel if he has ‘a good hook’.
Gladiator II arrived 24 years after the original, which starred Russell Crowe as former Roman army general turned gladiator Maximus. It won five Oscars, including best picture and best actor for Crowe.
‘The natural hook in [Gladiator II] seemed to be, what happened to the boy? A bit like Alien died a death after four films, and I thought, I want to resurrect the whole franchise, so I did Prometheus. The idea there was, who’s the big guy sitting in the chair? So from that you sit down at the table and start writing.
‘And on Gladiator II [it was] where did he get to? Did he get lost? Did he die in the wilderness of North Africa? And so you start writing and as you write it’s like [building] a pyramid in reverse. Writing is the hardest single thing to do. If I get it on paper, it’s dead easy.’
Paul Mescal was cast as the son of Maximus in 2024’s Gladiator II, Lucius Verus Aurelius, also the grandson of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. He is initially known as Hanno after being sent away by his mother Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) for his own protection, being captured in war and imprisoned in a gladiator training school owned by Macrinus (Denzel Washington).
Sir Ridley revealed: ‘I’m already now trying to write Gladiator 3. He’s around and he technically is the Emperor of Rome, and so I have a footprint about what I think it should be…
‘I’m not going to tell you in case you steal it!’ he then joked, to laughs from the audience.
For someone of his standing, the esteemed creative was also, unsurprisingly, asked what advice he’d give to youngsters hoping to follow in his footsteps.
His typical response? ‘Be relentless, don’t listen to any advice, be an absolute jerk.’
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