Blade Runner and Alien TV series in the works

Can't say I'm excited at TV versions, but I guess we must wait and see.

Blade Runner and Alien TV series in the works, says Ridley Scott

"Director Sir Ridley Scott has confirmed he is turning two of his most famous sci-fi movies, Blade Runner and Alien, into live-action TV series. Speaking on Monday ahead of the release of his new film House of Gucci, Sir Ridley told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he had already "written the pilot for Blade Runner" as well as "the bible" - the plan for a 10-episode series. The original Blade Runner movie, set in a dystopian future Los Angeles in 2019, was released in 1982, starring Harrison Ford. Its sequel, Blade Runner 2049, was released in 2017, starring Ryan Gosling alongside Ford; and an anime series called Blade Runner: Black Lotus premiered earlier this month on the Adult Swim channel. Sir Ridley said: "We're already into having written the pilot for Blade Runner and the bible, so we’re already presenting Blade Runner as a TV show, which will probably be the first 10 hours.

"And then Alien is a similar thing. Alien is now being written for pilot." The 1979 Alien film starred Sigourney Weaver and Tom Skerritt, and was followed by three sequels - as well as prequels and crossover Alien vs Predator movies alongside comic books and video games. Last year, FX channel boss John Landgraf described the new project as "the first Alien story set on Earth". He said: "By blending both the timeless horror of the first Alien film with the non-stop action of the second, it's going to be a scary thrill ride that will blow people back in their seats." "

 

I can only imagine what this will entail...I don't have to wait to find out.

 

I don't think that Sir Ridley is involved in the Alien show. In another recent interview he seemed quite dismissive of it.

 

I just wish things like this were left alone, we have seen the Star Wars legacy tainted by mediocre films and tv series. The last thing I want is The Alien and Blade Runner franchise tainted by this generation of tokenism.

 

Given the disappointment that was "2049", I'm in no hurry for a TV show.

Alien? Maybe. But probably not.

Why can't auteurs leave their legacy alone? (George, I'm lookin' at you...)

 

The quotes from that interview make it sound like he's involved!

 

I’d give Blade Runner a shot. Less hopeful about Alien.

 

Don't know who this John Landgraf guy is but why do I get the feeling he hasn't seen either 'Alien' or 'Aliens'?

 

When Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut came out, I remember asking a friend in the movie trade whether I should go see it, as it didn't seem like the reviewers were saying it was anywhere as good as Kubrick's greatest movies. My friend said, "You can go see Eyes Wide Shut, or you can go see Inspector Gadget. Those are your choices of movies playing in the theaters now."

Directors like Marty Scorsese and Ridley Scott are still very active at their advanced age. I think their biggest enemy these days is their own legacy, where people compare what they do now to what they did decades ago, at the peak of their powers. If we didn't measure everything they did next to their greatest movies from decades ago, you have some pretty solid films, done with a big budget with a real mastery of the craft, and based on new IP or a book (not just a sequel or reboot, like much of what Hollywood churns out these days).

I am not so bugged about people trying to spin off TV shows or sequels from great movies. If it doesn't work, I can ignore it, and I don't feel it tarnishes the original to me. Even Godfather and Highlander had less than beloved sequels, and Ferris Bueller and Dirty Dancing had long-forgotten TV shows.

Ridley Scott's track record on TV shows has been a mixed bag. The Good Wife may be the best TV show that he's produced. While I would love Ridley Scott to tackle new ideas for TV shows, there are a million reasons why TV shows get made. Working with existing IP can help get a project financed and sold. Perhaps Scott really enjoyed working with many of the team from the movie versions, and this is another chance to work with them again on ground they all enjoy spending their time on.

 

Was Raised by Wolves any good?

 

Definitely a wait and see scenario. Hoping for a positive outcome.

 

I'd have more time for Ridley Scott if he wasn't fumbling the Alien franchise in the cinema. That doesn't point in a good direction. Blade Runner..... the understated sequel to the original didn't exactly hit the spot either. I don't expect him to make classic after classic, but I've just not been excited where either of these franchises has gone.

 

The Alien franchise has gone so far off the rails I don't think it can get back on track.

 

Alien as a franchise is pretty much wash, rinse, repeat. The Aliens aren't very interesting - they are simple parasitic animals. Deadly, but there's no communicating with them, no interaction other than kill or be killed. I find the Predator franchise far more interesting at this point.

The Aliens are a horror movie villain no different than Jason - a killing machine that can't be reasoned with, and without any instinct beyond killing. Boring to me.

I love the original 'Alien' film, because it is about people in a terrifying situation. You don't see the alien for most of the movie. 'Aliens' is very good too, but the terror is diluted by seeing so much of the creatures.

As for a Blade Runner tv show, I would be very interested in that. BR has so much to mine, psychologically, emotionally, technologically - the moral and philosophical issues alone are boundless and fascinating.

 

It looked terrific, for the most part, but I quickly lost interest in the story and the characters. YMMV, of course.

 

"Aliens" isn't really "scary" because it doesn't attempt to be scary. It's an action movie, not a horror tale.

And "Aliens" shows that humans can communicate/reason with the xenomorphs - or with the Queen, at least. And she can "reason" with her minions.

 

I'll take any of the SW tv series over any of the films, bar the first three (1977-1983). I doubt the Alien tv show is going to be worse than AVP or the other one.

 

I think the creature in Alien is fascinating, and not just a parisitic animal. The issue is how they chose to write the story. There's a ton of scope to give more background. The trouble is, Scott has done...... I'm not actually even sure what he has done, because at this point he's gone so far astray. The next Alien film he makes needs to be something else to pull everything back in line, we're talking his best ever, because he's gone very very wrong, imo.

I also disagree with Predator. In fact, the Alien franchise has more to offer than the horrific things they've done with Predator. The first is a classic, the second was a decent idea, but the execution is very questionable, and the scene in the Spaceship should never have happened. The Alien v. Predator movies are soooo bad. The modern films haven't expanded on anything either.

Mind you, mindless killers can still be entertaining. How many Friday the 13th movies are there? How many Halloween movies? At this point I might well have preferred Scott had made Alien into a slasher franchise than what we've gotten. For the record, I think Aliens was a mistake. It's by far the most popular I think, but it really dumbed down the original and reduced it to a bunch of one-liners. It's an action flick that happens to have Aliens in it. But that's just me. Basically what I'm saying is - neither franchise has been done justice. It's a shame. The last Predator movie is a head scratcher, how the heck did that get made? Appalling stuff.

Interesting that Blade Runner has a literary source, so perhaps that meant it always had more depth and scope.....

 

No interest in either for me.

Bladerunner has more potential. I would think Alien would quickly become routine.

 

The execution of the Predator franchise (after the original) has been anywhere from poor to dreadful - but, the Predators themselves to me are far more interesting than the Xenomorphs. A spacefaring hunter civilization with nuclear armbands and all the tech they have is fascinating. The Xenomorphs are not much more than a hive-mind creature.

Mindless killers are not interesting to me - Michael Myers, Jason - those franchises have become so uninteresting IMO.

BR's genesis as a story by P.K. Dick absolutely has given it far more depth and scope than many other genre franchises. I'll watch this show, an Alien one probably not.

 

A Blade Runner TV show could have potential but the Alien series is something that I've been burnt too many times. For the exception of the video game, Alien: Isolation, everything after Aliens is a write-off to me.

 

It was very good.

 

The xenomorph (the Alien creature) is like a MacGuffin. The mythology in the movies and comics is partly about the xenomorph species, but I think more about corporations and humans double crossing each other to find, exploit and weaponize the xenomorphs.

It’s like saying Raiders of the Lost Ark is about the ark itself, or Temple of Doom is about whatever treasure Indy was trying to find (I can’t even remember, and I’ve seen that movie many times); the treasure is a vehicle for a story about a hunt, chase and double crossing by characters.

But the xenomorph as MacGuffin can do cool kill scenes, like when the ark is opened in Raiders.

The first Alien movie has little of the xenomorph, but it’s what sets up an interesting story about mercenaries and corporate agendas. I do agree with the post about wash, rinse, repeat in the movie sequels. Ridley Scott’s sequels seem more interested in trying out new special effects (like getting to shoot a xenomorph that’s all CGI instead of actor in body suit), instead of digging deeper into the world building. Even the Engineers and Ripley clones were interesting, but cut back from their full potential as story ideas. I could see a TV series going lighter on the xenomorph and digging deeper on the world building. That could be good in the hands of a good writer.

 

I thought it was better than the original. And I love the original.

 

Whether you love, hate or are lukewarm about Blade Runner 2049, I think the tepid box office results of that movie raises questions about how much of an audience exists for a new Blade Runner project.

Even before Blade Runner 2049 came out, critics were raising questions about how many people nowadays knew of the original, and how many fans of the original were really asking for a sequel.

That Bladerunner 2049 wound up being tepid at the box office didn’t really grow the fanbase. If you created a futuristic cyberpunk sci-fi show, how much is labeling it Blade Runner going to help market it? I guess it would be like the Westworld show; not sure how many people were excited by that because they were fans of the 1970s movie.

(I will also give a shout out to Altered Carbon on Netflix, which is a big budget futuristic cyberpunk show that I really enjoyed, the first season more than the second, and I could imagine a Blade Runner series done well being like.)