'We were asleep at the wheel': Sir Ridley Scott regrets leaving Alien franchise after first movie

Sir Ridley Scott regrets leaving the Alien franchise after the first movie.

The 86-year-old director helmed the eponymous sci-fi horror flick in 1979 before passing the torch to the series to a string of other filmmakers including James Cameron, David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, though Scott has now admitted he wishes he took full ownership of the I.P. after his original film proved to be such a critical and commercial hit.

In an interview with Deadline, the Ridley said: "We were asleep at the wheel. My advisors, who frankly no longer are with me, were asleep at the wheel, certainly. And I partly blame myself, except I was busy making other films. And so it was let go and it shouldn't have been."

After making Alien, Scott went on to make the Harrison Ford-starring sci-fi classic Blade Runner and followed it up with fantasy adventure film Legend.

Terminator director James Cameron took over the Alien franchise and was responsible for helming the 1986 sequel Aliens, which took the Xenomorph creature into action territory.

After Cameron's film, the series was passed to David Fincher and Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who helmed Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection in 1992 and 1997 respectively.

While Scott was satisfied with Cameron's work on Aliens, the filmmaker was not happy with what followed, especially the crossover films Alien vs. Predator and Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem.

He recalled: "Jim told me, 'Listen, I can't get it as frightening because you've just shown the beast enough that it's no longer fresh.' But it works, still.

"He said, 'I'm going to go military.' That's what Jim said. I said, 'Gotcha.' Jim's was a very good sequel. Three and four became more and more difficult. As it unrolled, I thought, oh god, they're f***ing it up. And then from that, honestly, I said, 'Okay, that's done.'"

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Following his long break from the franchise, Scott returned with the 2012 prequel Prometheus - which he wrote with Damon Lindelof - and its follow-up Alien: Covenant five years later.

The Gladiator II director explained he was inspired to revisit the series after Cameron's Aliens proved to stand the test of time and became one of the more popular entries into the franchise.

Scott explained: "Years later, I saw this bloody film that they keep playing every night somewhere on the globe, on all the platforms. There's life in the beast, yet.

"That's why I sat down with the great writer Lindelof, and we reconstructed a resurrection of the era, with Prometheus, and how it evolved from Alien."