Ridley Scott wants to ‘re-evolve’ the Alien franchise as romantic comedy

Three years on from Alien: Covenant has seen Sir Ridley Scott speak of his desire to ‘re-evolve’ the Alien franchise as a sexy romantic comedy.

“It’s not that I regret Covenant and Prometheus,” he said, reasonably convincingly.

“It’s just that, by the time I’d got to Prometheus, the franchise had completely evolved in this sci-fi/horror direction and there was nothing I could do to change it.”

The A Good Year director went on to explain what he would like to do with the Alien movies.

“I would love to re-evolve the series as romantic comedy, a really grown-up adult romantic comedy.

“I would completely rework the first picture, make it much lighter. It would totally change the direction of the franchise.”

He described how this might look.

“I’d love to see a much cuter meeting between Ripley and the Alien. You know, you could have had Ripley on the planet and she’s stealing the eggs and the Alien walks in and bumps into Ripley and she drops the eggs and she’s all like – ‘oh god!’

“She bends down to pick up the eggs, the Alien bends down to pick up the eggs but they bump heads, they catch each other’s eyes. There’s irritation, but there’s also a spark there.

“From there, you go on to a series of ‘will they-won’t they’ films where you see Ripley and the Alien coming into each other’s lives and then parting again – a bit like the Richard Linklater’s ‘Sunrise’ trilogy, but in space.

“More sexy adult flirtations, less laying eggs in stomachs. That’s how I’d change or ‘re-evolve’ the Alien franchise. Maybe I’ll get a chance to do that one day.”

Sir Ridley also went on to say how he’d like to re-evolve the Blade Runner films as slapstick comedy and Robin Hood as a film in which a man from England convincingly sounds like a man from England.