I like director Ridley Scott. As I’ve learned more about him over the years, I enjoy the fact that he’s sort of a stuffy English feminist, in that he’s a rare director who really prioritizing telling female-oriented stories and stories with female leads. He’s obviously a genius director and producer, although not everything he touches turns to gold. He’s currently promoting the new miniseries Taboo, starring Tom Hardy. Ridley is the executive producer on the series. He’s also in post-production on Alien: Covenant, which comes out in May. So that’s how Ridley ended up sitting down with Digital Spy. He was asked about the current state of cinema, which is basically the model I keep bitching about: studios spend hundreds of millions of dollars on superhero movies and hope that those films appeal to the key demographic of boys and men between the ages of 13 and 35. Well, Ridley doesn’t care for that model.

He’s no stranger to blockbuster cinema, but Ridley Scott has vowed never to jump on the comic book bandwagon. Scott told press including Digital Spy that he’s got no interest in superhero cinema and wants to “keep making smart films”.

“Superhero movies are not my kind of thing – that’s why I’ve never really done one,” he said.”[I’ve been asked] several times, but I can’t believe in the thin, gossamer tight-rope of the non-reality of the situation of the superhero. I’ve done that kind of movie – Blade Runner really is a comic strip when you think about it, it’s a dark story told in an unreal world. You could almost put Batman or Superman in that world, that atmosphere, except I’d have a f**king good story, as opposed to no story!”

It’s not just Marvel and DC dismaying Sir Ridley, though – he thinks “cinema mainly is pretty bad” and admitted he’s “concerned” for its future prospects.

“I want to keep doing cinema and I hope it doesn’t affect those of us who still keep making smart films,” he said. “I’m hoping it doesn’t affect me.”

Scott’s next big-screen project is Alien: Covenant, the sixth film in the franchise overall and a sequel to 2012’s Prometheus.

[From Digital Spy]

If you go through Ridley’s filmography, you can see that he’s actually not some snooty hipster auteur who only deigns to make arthouse films. He’s not like that at all – he loves to make big popcorn films, like Gladiator and Alien and The Martian. And as I said, Ridley makes mistakes too, and not every one of his films is a work of genius. In recent memory, Prometheus was a f—king mess, mostly because of the massive script issues. What’s my point? I don’t know. I like Ridley’s grumpiness about superhero movies and his general dislike of most films today. He’s not saying Hollywood should stop making big, crowd-pleasing popcorn movies, he’s saying that people should care enough to make smart movies with good stories.

Photos courtesy of WENN.