Ridley Scott Wiki: 5 Facts To Know About 'The Gladiator' Director

Ridley Scott is a famous English film director and producer. He has a net worth of $200 million USD. He helped to establish a film department at the 'Royal College of Art' and his last project over there was a short film - Boy and Bicycle. This film was directed by Scott's brother Tony Scott and it was the directorial debut of Tony. Ridley moved on to work as a trainee set designer for BBC and that led him to work on a number of popular television series of that era. Scott founded the Ridley Scott Associates (RSA) in 1960. RSA is a film and commercial production company. Scott got his brother Tony with him in RSA. The company garnered a lot of fame for the brothers along with other commercial directors like Hugh Hudson and Alan Parker. The RSA company is quite profitable and today generates a net worth of $100 million per year in revenue-producing commercials. In 1977, he ventured into the direction of 'The Duellists'. This film was nominated for the main prize at Cannes Film Festival and also won the award for Best Film. Tony Scott committed suicide on August 19, 2012 by jumping off the Vincent Thomas Bridge in Los Angeles, California. There was a suicide note found at his office which explained the reason behind his death. In the year 1965, Scott began directing episodes for television series for BBC, but only one episode of 'Adam Adamant Lives' is available commercially. Scott made many commercials along with directors Hugh Hudson, Alan Parker and Hugh Johnson at the RSA including a notable commercial of the 1973 Hovis advertisement, 'Bike Round', filmed in Gold Hill, Dorset. His commercial on a nostalgia theme captured the public imagination and it was voted as UK's favorite commercial in a 2006 poll. Scott directed many television commercials in the 1970s and 1980s which were inventive mini-films with production values of seduction and fantasy, which played on the same visual imagery, with the same silhouette of the bottle.” Five members of the Scott family have worked for the RSA and all are directors. Ridley Scott wanted to do a movie, an adaptation of 'Tristan and Iseult' but after seeing 'Star Wars' his vision shifted to the potential of large-scale and effect-driven films. His directorial venture 'Alien' which is a 1979 horror/science-fiction film won him international success. It was his decision to switch Ellen Ripley from an action hero to a heroine. Ripley appeared in first four Alien films and became a cinematic icon. The final scene of John Hurt's character in the movie was acclaimed as one of the most memorable performances in the history of cinema. 'Alien was filmed at the Shepperton Studios in England and also happens to be the sixth highest-grossing film of 1979. 'Alien' earned Alien: The Director’s Cut. He felt the original was much better and the others were just a part of the marketing strategy. He returned to the direction of an Alien-related movie, three decades after the original film's release. Scott was working since a year on the film adaptation of Dune, when he got the news of his brother Frank's sudden death. He, at that time, signed the film version of Philip K. Dick's novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?'. The film 'Blade Runner' was starring Harrison Ford but it was regarded as a disappointment in cinemas in 1982, but is now regarded as a classic. Blade Runner today is classified as one of the most important and influential science-fiction films ever made by the critics. Blade Runner has imitated portraits of a future cityscape. It is even ranked close to William Gibson's novel 'Neuromancer' as initiating the cyberpunk genre. Scott believes 'Blade Runner' to be his “most complete and personal film”. Scott's drama movie, 'Gladiator' in the year 2000 was proved to be one of his biggest critically acclaimed and commercially successful films. It had won five Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor for Russel Crowe and Best Director nominee for Scott. 'Gladiator' managed to review the 'sword and sandal' historical genre which had nearly become defunct. This film, 'Gladiator' was named as the 5th best action film of all-time in the ABC special Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time. Scott next turned to 'Hannibal' in the year 2001 with Anthony Hopkins playing the role of Hannibal Lecter. The film got mixed reviews but was commercially successful. He next came with the film 'Black Hawk Down' in the year 2001 which was based on a group of US soldiers stranded and fighting for their country in Somalia. The film won the Academy Award for the Best Director. Scott came next with a small-scale project called the 'Matchstick Men' based on the novel from Eric Garcia. It had Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell and Alison Lohman and it received positive reviews. 'The Good Wife' is a movie about a middle-aged woman who joins the workforce after her politico husband's sex scandal. He and his brother Tony were the executive producers of 'The Good Wife'. 'The Good Wife' was a television series aired in 2009. 'The Good Wife' was also nominated in the 'Oustanding Drama Series' at the Emmy Awards. In 2005, he gave the audiences a moderately successful, 'Kingdom of Heaven' which was a film about Crusades starring Orlando Bloom. It was Scott's first collaboration with the composer Harry Gregson-Williams. He was unhappy with the film due to editing done by Fox and released a director’s cut of the film, the true version of what he wanted, which was released on DVD in 2006. This was met with critical acclaim with the Empire Magazine calling the film 'Kingdom of Heaven' an epic adding, “The added 45 minutes in the director’s cut are like pieces missing from a beautiful but incomplete puzzle.”

He was born on November 30, 1937 in South Shields, Tyne and Wear, England. Ridley Scott's parents were Elizabeth and Colonel Francis Percy Scott. Born and brought up in an army family, Scott never got to see much of his father in his early life his father was an officer in the Royal Engineers. Scott also had an elder brother, Frank, who joined the British Merchant Navy while Ridley Scott was still young and hence did not have much contact with him too. After the World War II, the Scott family relocated back to their native North East and settled on Greens Beck Road in Hartburn, Country Durham. One can find inspiration from the industrial landscape similar to his hometown in the movie 'Blade Runner'. His early education was at Grangefield Grammar School and West Hartlepool College of ARt from 1954 to 1958. He got a diploma in design from there.

His major breakthrough in the entertainment industry came with the film 'Alien' in the year 1979. That was also his first film as a director. His other well-known films are sci-fi classic 'Blade Runner' in the year 1982, 'Thelma & Louise' in 1991, the Oscar-winner movie for best picture 'Gladiator' in 2000, 'Hannibal' in 2001, 'Black Hawk Down' in the year 2001, 'Matchstick Men' in 2003, 'Kingdom of Heaven' in 2005, 'American Gangster' in 2007, 'Robin Hood' in 2010, the 'Prometheus' in 2012 and 'The Martian' in 2015.

Scott suffers from Claustrophobia. He wanted to create the feeling that claustrophobia elicits in the movie Alien, which he did by making the cast as cramped as possible in the Nostromo living quarters. Due to his army background and artistic orientation, he is obsessed with each and every minute detail. He is a perfectionist. On the set of Alien, actress Sigourney Weaver complained that he cared much more for his props and set than he did for the cast.

His brother Tony Scott was a successful film director who had a career spanning more than 2 decades. His suicidal death came as a shock to everyone. Scott has two sons, Jake and Luke and both of them are acclaimed directors of commercials and his daughter too, Jordan Scott. Jake and Jordon are based in Los Angeles whereas Luke is based in London. Ridley Scott married Felicity Heywood in 1964 but the couple divorced in 1975. They have two sons Jake and Luke and both of them work as directors on RSA. He later married advertising executive Sandy Watson in the year 1979 but again divorced in the year 1989. He has a daughter from his second marriage, Jordan Scott. Scott is currently in a relationship with actress Giannina Facio whom he is casting in all his films except for 'The Martian' and 'American Gangster'. Scott equally divides his time between his homes in London, France and Los Angeles. 4. He divides his time between homes in London, France, and Los Angeles. His brother Frank died at the age of 45 due to skin cancer. His younger brother also committed suicide at the age of 68 after a prolonged battle with cancer. Ridley Scott is an atheist. Scott has dedicated his movie, 'Blade Runner' to his brother Frank, his movie, 'Black Hawk Down' to his mother, and 'he Counselor and Exodus: Gods and Kings' to his brother Tony.

Scott was made the Knight Bachelor in the 2003 New Year Honors for his substantial contribution to the British film industry. He received his accolade from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 8 July 2003. In 2011, he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He has been nominated for three Academy Awards for Directing—Thelma & Louise, Gladiator and Black Hawk Down—as well as a Golden Globe, BAFTA and 2 Primetime Emmy Awards. In 1995, Ridley and his brother Tony received the BAFTA for Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema. In 2012, Scott was among the British cultural icons selected by artist Sir Peter Blake to appear in a new version of his most famous artwork – the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album cover – to celebrate the British cultural figures of his life that he most admires to mark his 80th birthday. On 3 July 2015, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Royal College of Art in a ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London at which he described how he still keeps on his office wall his school report placing him 31st out of 31 in his class, and how his teacher encouraged him to pursue what became his passion at art school. He is one of the richest directors in the world today with a net worth of $200 million USD. He won the Oscar for the film 'Gladiator' in 2010 for best picture. He also won the Oscar nominee for 'The Martian' in the Best Picture category. His film 'Thelma and Louise' was also nominated for Oscar. He was nominated for Golden Globe Awards for 'The Gladiator', 'The Martian' and 'The American Gangster'. He also won the Best Motion Picture award at the Golden Globe for his film 'The Martian'. His Golden Globe award for his film 'All the Money in the World' for Best Director is still pending. 'All the Money in the World' is a drama film about the kidnapping of John paul Getty III. 'All the Money in the World' was filmed from May to August in 2017 and it is his recent film. 'All the Money in the World' stars Christopher Plummer, Michelle Williams and Mark Wahlberg.