Ridley Scott is a director who is known for jumping from one genre to the next with amazing dexterity. Not only has Scott tackled just about every genre you can name, from sci-fi to horror to action to Biblical epics, he's also mastered most of them while creating a handful of films that genuinely define their particular genre.
There is however one genre the legendary Scott has not yet tried to take on: superhero movies. Unless you count Gladiator as a superhero film, Scott has never gotten close to dipping his toe in that particular pool. Why exactly has Scott, a man who has the technical skill to handle pretty much anything you can throw at him, avoided taking on the task of bringing a Marvel or DC hero to life? He just doesn't care for superheroes.
Scott told the press during a recent appearance that superhero movies are just not "his kind of thing," as reported by Digital Spy. The filmmaker elaborated on that, saying that the original Blade Runner is the closest thing he's ever done to a comic book movie and that he would prefer to keep on making "smart" films:
"[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!"
Scott's new remarks echo things he's said in the past about his reluctance to take on comic book movies because of the difficulty of translating the source material to the big screen. Scott said in an interview in late 2014 that a comic book movie is "the hardest single thing to write" and that's a big reason why he's always shied away from such material. Scott's new remarks do make it seem like he's grown a little bit frustrated with the number of superhero films in theaters nowadays.
Though the filmmaker may find comic book movies tough to write and not necessarily his idea of "smart" cinema, a lot of folks will go on wishing and hoping to one day see a superhero flick directed by Ridley Scott. Superhero movies above all require visual flare and Scott has always been one of the most brilliant and imaginative of visual storytellers, as he demonstrated with Blade Runner and Alien. Scott also is great with visceral action, as he showed with Gladiator and Black Hawk Down, and that's another skill that would seemingly make him a natural to take on the task of directing a superhero film.
Wish as we may for Scott to plunge into the superhero world, it doesn't look like we'll be seeing that happen any time soon. Like Steven Spielberg before him, Scott is highly dismissive of the superhero genre in general and that fact alone is possibly a good reason why studios should stop offering him the opportunity to make comic book movies. In the meantime, Scott is still making non-superhero movies that people are pretty excited about, including the upcoming Alien: Covenant.
Source: Digital Spy