When Ridley Scott brought Alien and Blade Runner to theaters with 20th Century Fox in the late 1970s and early 1980s, IPs and franchises were nowhere near as big an issue as they are today. The then young filmmaker missed an opportunity that would later have a major impact on his work – and remains one of his greatest regrets to this day.
Ridley Scott has not secured the rights to sequels to Alien and Blade Runner
As Scott recently explained in an extensive profile in the Hollywood Reporter, he is still bothered by the fact that he has not secured the rights to the sequels to his biggest sci-fi hits:
I should have locked her upas well as [Steven] Spielberg did it with Jurassic Park and everything else, and James Cameron did it with his stuff.
At the latest when the master director brought the Alien franchise back to life with Prometheus – Dark Signs in 2012, he would have wished that he had fought harder for the rights and financial participation with his production company Scott Free:
I breathed new life into a dead Alien franchise with Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, and we should have gotten the copyright back there, but we didn’t, because someone was careless.
Watch the trailer for Alien: Covenant here:
Alien Covenant – Trailer 2 (German) HD
Back in August 2024, Scott told Vanity Fair that he regretted not making the sequels to Alien and Blade Runner himself. According to his own statement, he didn’t want to go through the process of creating the films again at the time. At the same time, however, he stated “no choice” to have had since he “tough negotiating partner” have had.
Ridley Scott is making new Alien film
However, as Scott explained in the same interview with the Hollywood Reporter, he is now working on a new Alien film again. It is not yet known which part of the series this will be linked to.
Podcast for sci-fi fans: The best sci-fi series since 2000
What were the best science fiction series since the beginning of the new millennium? In the podcast we present the 10 most brilliant genre representatives that every sci-fi fan should have seen.
At this point you will find external content that complements the article. You can display it and hide it again with one click.
The 10 best sci-fi series of the last 24 years include brain-twisting time loops, oppressive dystopias, devastating robot wars and more than just a fantastic space epic.