| Ridley Scott has had many successes and failures. Right now he is riding high on back to back successes with Gladiator pulling in almost $200 million dollars domestically and 12 Academy Award Nominations, including Best Picture and Director. His beautifully magnificent Hannibal raking in the dough and breaking records. He is now busy working on a war movie based in Somalia called Black Hawk Down. What makes Scott so magnificently efficient as a director is his ability to jump from genre to genre. His first mainstream success was the 1979 thriller Alien which redefined the science-fiction genre. He then jumped to the Harrison Ford future as apocalypse flick Blade Runner which was at first bashed by critics, but is now highly regarded as one of the best science-fiction films ever made. He then moved into action territory with Black Rain a Michael Douglas thriller about a cop who's partner is killed by Japanese drug lords. He earned A-List status with his next film, Thelma & Louise, the Susan Sarandon-Geena Davis starrer about woman on the verge of madness, which was nominated for five Oscars, including Scott's first nomination for Director. He flopped with his next three attempts, the Gerard Depardeiu star vehicle 1492: Conquest of Paradise which grossed a measily $8 million dollars in the United States. His next flop was the very entertaining White Squall which grossed only $10 million dollars compared to it's budget of $38 million. G.I. Jane wasn't necessarily a flop, but more a disappointment, not making up it's budget. Finally along came Gladiator which brought the director back up to par and with Hannibal he has cemented his status as the director of the moment. What Ridley Scott has in store for the future is anyone's guess, but at least we know it will be entertaining. | |