Ridley Scott isn't one to mince his words, and he's certainly not holding back on the press tour for his upcoming period drama Napoleon. In a new interview with Deadline, the filmmaker was asked his thoughts on James Cameron's follow-up to his sci-fi hit Alien, to which he got, predictably, candid...
"When Jim called me up and said, 'Listen…', he was very nice but he said, 'This is tough, your beast is so unique,'" Scott recalled, admitting that he was in a low mood when the call came in due to 1982's Blade Runner underperforming at the box office.
"'It's hard to make him as frightening again, now familiar ground.' So he said, 'I'm going in a more action, army kind of way.' I said, 'Okay.' And that's the first time I actually thought, 'Welcome to Hollywood'.
"Jim and I talk often. We're not exactly friends, but we do talk and he's a great guy. I was pissed. I wouldn't tell that to Jim, but I think I was hurt. I knew I'd done something very special, a one-off really. I was hurt, deeply hurt, actually because at that moment, I think I was damaged goods because I was trying to recover from Blade Runner."
Released in 1986, Aliens takes place decades after the original. It sees Sigourney Weaver's sole survivor Ellen Ripley return to the place where the Nostromo crew was attacked by a vicious extraterrestrial to investigate why the human colony, that has since been built on the site, has lost all communications. Knowing what's more than likely to greet her there, Ripley has a unit of Colonial Marines tag along on the mission, too, which shifted the sequel's tone significantly.
If, after reading the above, you're in the mood for something otherworldly but don't fancy an Aliens rewatch, check out our list of the best sci-fi movies of all time for some viewing inspiration.
