Legendary Hollywood director Ridley Scott says that the film industry is so bad that he is being relegated to just re-watching his own old films.
The famed Blade Runner director is very pessimistic about the film industry, calling most of what Hollywood is putting out is little else but “mediocrity,” Deadline reported.
“The quantity of movies that are made today, literally globally – millions. Not thousands, millions… and most of it is shit,” he said during an interview at BFI Southbank in London on Sunday. Scott also said many films are “saved” by the superior digital effects available to filmmakers now. But that is true because they don’t have “great thing on paper first.”
When asked what modern films he likes, he replied, “Well, actually, right now, I’m finding mediocrity – we’re drowning in mediocrity. And so what I do – it’s a horrible thing – but I’ve started watching my own movies, and actually they’re pretty good! And also, they don’t age.”
Scott, 87, went on to say that films are so bad, he is now going back and watching his own catalog.
“I watched Black Hawk [Down] the other night and I thought, ‘How in the hell did I manage to do that?’ But I think occasionally a good one will happen, [and] it’s like a relief that there’s somebody out there who’s doing a good movie,” he exclaimed.
Scott also hinted about what plans he has for Gladiator 3.
“He’s around and he technically is the Emperor of Rome, and so I have a footprint about what I think it should be,” he said of the film’s hero.
While he is ready for another Gladiator, and he has signed on to multiple sequels for the Aliens series, he recently noted that he turned down a $20 million opportunity to helm Terminator 3 because he would “fuck it up” by trying to “make it real.”
While many are hopeful that artificial intelligence could help save Hollywood, Scott is more worried about AI than he is excited by it.
Back in 2023, he warned that we need to “lock down AI” before it gets out of hand.
“If I’m designing AI, I’m going to design a computer whose first job is to design another computer that’s cleverer than the first one,” he explained. “And when they get together, then you’re in trouble, because then it can take over the whole electrical-monetary system in the world and switch it off. That’s your first disaster. It’s a technical hydrogen bomb. Think about what that would mean.”
“AI will get dangerous,” he insisted.
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