Ridley Scott thinks the Alien series should be on the same level as other science fiction franchises, such as Star Trek and Star Wars. The acclaimed filmmaker made a name for himself by directing the 1979 film, Alien, which was based on a screenplay from Dan O'Bannon and famously starred Sigourney Weaver as Ripley, along with Tom Skerritt as Dallas, Ian Holm as Ash, and many others. Alien opened to near-universal acclaim and became a smashing success at the worldwide box office.
Alien eventually spawned a sequel, Aliens, which was directed by The Terminator's James Cameron and released in 1986, seven years after Scott's first installment. The sequel received overwhelming acclaim from critics and was nominated for seven Academy Awards. Aliens also went on to earn $131 million at the worldwide box office, approximately $27 million more than the 1979 film. It didn't take long for 20th Century Fox to realize that they had an expansive multimedia franchise on their hands, which was exploited in sequels, prequels, comics, novels, and video games, among many other things. But despite numerous installments and expansions, the Alien franchise remains behind some of the world's biggest multimedia properties - and that's something that Scott laments.
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In an interview with The Toronto Sun for his latest film, All the Money in the World, Ridley Scott briefly discussed 2017's Alien: Covenant and the next step for his Alien prequel series. While he didn't shed any light on his plans, he did say that the franchise should arguably be as big as some of Hollywood's other sci-fi films.
"There’s no reason why Alien should now not be on the same level for fans as Star Trek and Star Wars. So I think the next step as to where we go is, do we sustain the Alien (series) with the evolution of the beast or do we reinvent something else? I think you need to have an evolution on this famous beast because he’s the best monster ever, really."
The Alien franchise currently spans six mainline installments as well as two spinoff movies and multiple adaptations in various media forms; it even has its own dedicated day (April 26). Taking all that into account, Alien should be as big as Star Trek and Star Wars, but the movies' box office grosses say otherwise.
While Scott would love to continue making Alien movies, he may no longer be given the chance. Unfortunately, it seems as if 20th Century Fox has closed the door on the Alien franchise. Scott planned on making at least two more movies in his Alien prequel series, following the events of 2012's Prometheus and 2017's Alien: Covenant, but recent rumors indicate that the studio has shelved the franchise due to the poor critical reception and box office performance of Covenant, which hit theaters in May 2017. And it doesn't seem like Fox is keen on moving forward with Neill Blomkamp's Alien 5 either, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens.
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Source: The Toronto Sun