BOY AND
BICYCLE
Ridley Scott is an English film director, writer and producer. After he directed his first short film, Boy
and Bicycle, he began working at the BBC as a trainee set designer, working on television series such
as Z-Cars and Out of the unknown. He was scheduled to design the second series of Doctor Who, but
had to be replaced due to scheduling conflicts. In the 1970’s, Scott directed many television
commercials including the famous Hovis ‘Bike Round’ advert.
In 1977, Ridley Scott directed his first feature film, The duellists. The screenplay was based on ‘The
duel’, a short story written by Joseph Conrad. The film was nominated for the main prize at the
Cannes Film Festival, and won best debut film. After seeing Star Wars in 1977, Scott was convinced
at the potential of large-scale, effects-driven films and accepted the job of Directing ‘Alien’. The film
was released in 1979, and won him international success and made the heroine of the film, Ripley a
cinematic icon.
In 1980, Scott joined development of the film adaptation of Phillip K Dick’s novel, Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep, which was renamed to Blade Runner. The film was released in 1982,
starring Harrison Ford as Rick Decker, a ‘Blade Runner’ who tracks down bioengineered beings to
retire them. The film was a commercial disappointment, but is now regarded as one of the most
influential Sci-Fi films ever made and warranting a sequel, released in 2017.
Recently, Scott has directed films such as The Martian, Alien: Covenant, American Gangster and All
the Money in The World. Scott also has numerous projects lined up for future release, such as a film
adaptation of the Battle of Britain, which he describes as a passion project and a sequel to Alien:
Covenant, which will be the last of the prequels to the original Alien movie.