Ridley Scott: I’m proud of turning down the $20 million offer for Terminator 3
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, Ridley Scott, the director of Alien, said in a new interview with The Guardian that he is “proud” of rejecting a $20 million offer to direct Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines.
The 87-year-old filmmaker explained that, on the advice of a friend, he demanded the same salary that Arnold Schwarzenegger was receiving for starring in Terminator, and was surprised when the producers agreed to his request.
He said: “I’m not for sale, mate. I thought to myself: ‘Damn me.’ But I just couldn’t do it. It wasn’t one of my passions.”
Scott compared directing Terminator 3 to making a James Bond film: “The essence of a Bond film is entertainment and fun. Terminator is pure comic strip. I could have made it real. That’s why they never asked me to do a Bond movie, because I would have ruined it.”
James Cameron directed The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day, the latter widely considered one of the greatest sci-fi films ever made. His plans for Terminator 3 collapsed shortly after the release of the second film, when the company that owned half the rights to the franchise went bankrupt. Cameron never revealed his ideas for the third installment, and more than a decade passed before Jonathan Mostow directed Rise of the Machines in 2003.
In another part of the interview, Scott confirmed that a third installment of Gladiator is in development. Gladiator II, starring Paul Mescal and Denzel Washington, was released last year.
Asked whether he would make another Alien film as a sequel to Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, he replied: “Another prequel to Alien—yes, if an idea comes to me, absolutely.”
Scott has been nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Director: for Thelma & Louise (1991), Gladiator (2000), and Black Hawk Down (2002).
He added that following Gladiator II, he plans to make Battle of Britain, while his Bee Gees project may not happen.
