Ridley Scott's MERLIN

[Fallen Angel]

Ridley Scott in talks to direct a 'Merlin' movie for Disney http://thr.cm/ASkhiM

Ridley Scott is in talks to direct The Merlin Saga for Disney.


The feature, based on the T.A. Barron book series, will follow the legendary wizard long before he met King Arthur and his round table.

Veteran fantasy scripter Philippa Boyens, who was a co-writer on Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies, is set to pen the feature.
Scott would also produce via his Scott Free banner, along with Gil Netter (Life of Pi, Marley & Me). Tendo Nagenda and Foster Driver are overseeing the project for the studio.

 

[Abudefduf]

Well, isn't this random. At least it's not a remake of Sword in the Stone.

 

[Fallen Angel]

Don't worry that's also in development.

Variety is reporting that this movie is likely to be the next movie Sir Ridley directs.

 

[Arachnerd]

...huh.

Not sure how to feel about this.

 

[ThePowerCosmic]

Classy move on Disney's part. Now that Scott is satisfied with a possible franchise in Merlin, Disney/Fox can announce they are moving forward with Neil Blomkamp's Alien 5. Fingers crossed.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

Well I do love Kingdom of Heaven...

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[StarLord]

Yas.

 

[LaughterLives]

I feel like people will crap on this the way they did Robin Hood.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

Shared Universe with Guy Ritchie's King Arthur legacy even though that is made by a completely different studio [blackout]and has zero mention of Merlin[/blackout].

 

[TheVileOne]

Anything that keeps him far away from the Alien franchise. And hey, Ridley Scott doing fantasy again might be sort of interesting at least.

His movie LEGEND is sort of a guilty pleasure. It's not a great film, but it has some interesting stuff in it, and the original script for it was pretty epic.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

He has it in him to make six more Alien movies, working on this won't keep him away from his ambition working on those.

 

[TheVileOne]

He has it in him to make six more Alien movies, working on this won't keep him away from his ambition working on those.

You really think once the Disney transaction is finished they are going to keep signing checks for Ridley Scott turning the Alien series into his AI vanity project?

 

[Spider-Aziz]

You really think once the Disney transaction is finished they are going to keep signing checks for Ridley Scott turning the Alien series into his AI vanity project?

I forgot that they now own Fox. Who knows? They might give him that pleasure, with some script doctors to work some magic of their own and finally help him give us the first Alien movie I enjoy that is not one of the Ellen Ripley trilogy.


I'm interested in hearing what Sam Neil might think of the movie once he sees it, I liked him in the role of Merlin when I was younger.

 

[Marvolo]

You really think once the Disney transaction is finished they are going to keep signing checks for Ridley Scott turning the Alien series into his AI vanity project?

They are willing to sign checks for him to direct a saga of merlin films. Which will no doubt cost much more than Prometheus and Alien Covenant. That seems to answer whether Disney is afraid of giving Scott money. And you can bet Disney won't let the Alien franchise sit on a shelf. Sure, they might push Scott away from Alien the way they pushed Lucas away from star wars, but Scott is much more respected in the studio system and works well with studios and he is insanely efficient with his productions so if he makes a good pitch Disney will probably take him up on it.

Something else to consider. Disney allowing him to direct another alien film might be contingent on this merlin saga. A "We'll fund your alien movies if you direct this other thing for us." type of situation.

 

[TheVileOne]

They are willing to sign checks for him to direct a saga of merlin films. Which will no doubt cost much more than Prometheus and Alien Covenant. That seems to answer whether Disney is afraid of giving Scott money. And you can bet Disney won't let the Alien franchise sit on a shelf. Sure, they might push Scott away from Alien the way they pushed Lucas away from star wars, but Scott is much more respected in the studio system and works well with studios and he is insanely efficient with his productions so if he makes a good pitch Disney will probably take him up on it.

Something else to consider. Disney allowing him to direct another alien film might be contingent on this merlin saga. A "We'll fund your alien movies if you direct this other thing for us." type of situation.

OK, I would say you make some valid points here Marvolo. Scott clearly still has a strong reputation as a filmmaker. People like working with him, and he seems to have good relationships with the brass and executives and generally keeps his projects on time and under budget. I think him still being able to deliver a film like The Martian in recent years helps him still get deals like this done.

I do doubt the latter paragraph. Disney can't make any such type of deals right now because the Fox acquisition isn't done. So they can't really write those kinds of things in. Maybe there is some long-term planning on the part of Ridley Scott and his partners, thinking if they can deliver a big fantasy franchise for Disney, they can get some leeway on the future for Alien.

Also look at the diminishing returns from Prometheus to Covenant. Unless Scott can pitch some really cheap Alien installment, I doubt Disney signs off on it.

I think another problem for Covenant was that it took forever to make. It was a five-year gap between Prometheus and Covenant. IMHO, huge mistake there. Now it seems if another one does happen, there will be a similar gap in time. Do we really want to wait another five years for another confused prequel-sequel?

 

[Marvolo]

Frankly I'd rather someone like James Wan direct the next Alien film. An actual horror film director.

 

[Roose Bolton]

I hope whichever way they go with the Alien franchise they avoid anything to do with the originals and just create a new story with new characters. Get David Fincher back and give him Carte Blanche to make up for how he was ****ed around last time.

But as for Merlin, I like the idea of Ridley doing something in this genre. It's been years since Legend and having Boyens attached as the writer has my interest.

 

[LaughterLives]

Frankly I'd rather someone like James Wan direct the next Alien film. An actual horror film director.

I think Mike Flanagan would be better.

 

[Marvolo]

I hope whichever way they go with the Alien franchise they avoid anything to do with the originals and just create a new story with new characters. Get David Fincher back and give him Carte Blanche to make up for how he was ****ed around last time.

But as for Merlin, I like the idea of Ridley doing something in this genre. It's been years since Legend and having Boyens attached as the writer has my interest.

I'm curious to see how Boyens does without Jackson.

 

[:eek:]

Maybe they can merge this with Alien and call it Merlien

 

[markjoedelonge]

Anything that keeps him far away from the Alien franchise. And hey, Ridley Scott doing fantasy again might be sort of interesting at least.

His movie LEGEND is sort of a guilty pleasure. It's not a great film, but it has some interesting stuff in it, and the original script for it was pretty epic.

Meg Mucklebones still scares the crap out of me.

 

[Doctor Jones]

I'm not interested in a gritty and realistic take on Merlin. But **** it, let Scott do whatever he wants. A part of me would like a fun movie, but with Disney's gloss, maybe not. Maybe I would prefer old man Scott to shake things up with udder madness and totally scare and baffle Disney execs who won't control him. Scott's a mixed bag but dammit if I don't love the son of a *****.

 

[Silvermoth]

I like the idea of a merlin story but I'm not sure Ridley has it anymore. He seems to be mostly an old ranting man now

 

[Marvolo]

I'm not interested in a gritty and realistic take on Merlin. But **** it, let Scott do whatever he wants. A part of me would like a fun movie, but with Disney's gloss, maybe not. Maybe I would prefer old man Scott to shake things up with udder madness and totally scare and baffle Disney execs who won't control him. Scott's a mixed bag but dammit if I don't love the son of a *****.

Scott's not going to scare Disney. He'll play ball and "stay on script". He'll argue for something he really thinks is necessary, but he's not going to do anything crazy.