<span class="SFPTagline"> From SCIFIPEDIA </span>

Sir Ridley Scott (b. November 30, 1937, South Shields, County Durham, England, UK) is a director and producer of major motion pictures. His credits include Thelma and Louise, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, G.I. Jane, and Tristan and Isolde, as well as genre classics Alien and Blade Runner.

Scott received his education at the West Hartlepool College of Art and London's Royal College of Art where he earned his MA in graphic design. He started out in the film industry as a set designer, working for BBC in the 1960s. He advanced to directing and established himself directing episodes of Z Cars, Thirty-Minute Theatre and Adam Adamant Lives! He eventually established his film company, Ridley Scott Associates and in addition to his television credits, also directed commercials.

Scott transitioned to film with the 1977 movie The Duelists starring Keith Carradine and Harvey Keitel. The film, set during the Napoleonic wars, won the Jury Prize for Best First Feature at the Cannes Film Festival. He followed up with the hit 1979 film Alien which established him as an important director. His next venture, Blade Runner, would win him more fans. Scott clashed with studio execs about the film's contents and its ending and gave in to pressures to alter the ending. The change however, did not produce positive results and Blade Runner was not a box office success. The film nevertheless became a cult classic and an ever acknowledged masterpiece.

Scott directed Tom Cruise in the fantasy feature Legend in 1985 and followed up with Black Rain starring Michael Douglas and Andy Garcia, and Thelma & Louise with Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis. In 1991, hewas nominated for an Emmy Award for RKO 281 featuring Liev Schreiber and James Cromwell. The film centered on Orson Welles attempts to make a biopic about William Randolph Hearst. His successes made failure seem unlikely but his historical drama 1492: Conquest of Paradise proved a box office failure and Scott took a break to produce Monkey Trouble and the vampire series The Hunger.

In 1997 he directed the controversial G.I. Jane starring Demi Moore as the first female candidate for the Navy SEALS. In 2001 he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for the Roman epic Gladiator starring Russel Crowe. It was his second nomination, having previously been nominated for the award in 1992 for Thelma & Louise. Though Scott did not take home the Oscar, the film won the award for Best Picture. He was nominated again in 2001 for the war drama Black Hawk Down produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. Also in 2001, he directed Anthony Hopkins in Hannibal the sequel to the Academy Award-winning Silence of the Lambs.

Taking a short break from big-budget action films, Scott directed Nicholas Cage in the adaptation of the Eric Garcia novel Matchstick Men. He then followed up with Kingdom of Heaven set in the 12th century during the time of the Crusades. Though classic big budget fare, the film did not thrill audiences or critics. He followed up with the romance, A Good Year starring Russell Crowe, and American Gangster. His production work included the Cameron Diaz and Toni Collette film In Her Shoes, the classic romance Tristan + Isolde, the miniseries The Company and the western The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford starring Brad Pitt. He is also an executive producer of the CBS series Numb3rs.

Scott's upcoming directorial projects include Body of Lies, Nottingham and Blood Meridian. He will also produce the miniseries The Andromeda Strain, Factor X and Emma's War.

External Links

• Ridley Scott - Starpulse
• Ridley Scott at Internet Movie Database