Ridley Scott Doesn’t Care How ‘Alien’ Ends Up in 3D

By  · Published on April 26th, 2010

It’s not surprising that Ridley Scott would be on board with the new boom in 3D technology. It’s not surprising that he wants to take that trend and apply it to his forthcoming Alien prequel. However, it’s a bit surprising how flippant he is about how the film gets that way.

I may be reading this interview that’s up at Collider incorrectly, but from the line of questions and Scott’s responses, it seems like he sees shooting for 3D and aftermarket conversation as virtually similar when the opposite has been shown to be the case.

Ridley Scott: Of course, [Alien will] be 3D.

Are you going to use the James Cameron 3D cameras?

Scott: No, I think they’ve already moved beyond. Jim said that this technique, which had taken them four years, he’d said that now you could do it in two. Technology’s shifting all the time. I could have converted Robin Hood. They’d said last October, I could have squeezed it under the hammer and got it in as a 3D version of Robin Hood.

But doesn’t it make more sense to compose in 3D?

Scott: It’s not a big deal. People always agonize whether it’s 1.85 or 2.35 and I don’t really give a shit. It’s your eye and how you’re going to fill the frame. If you’ve got an eye, it’s not a problem. If you don’t have an eye, then they turn it into science. You’ve got a lot of conversations going on and that’s why it takes forever and it shouldn’t.

He goes on during the interview to talk about how he could, if he wanted to, essentially farm out the job of converting his older films into the third dimension and do it all fairly painlessly.

I chalk this up to the craftsmanship level of Scott. He’s a master filmmaker who has done this for decades, so it’s no surprise that he sees 3D-ifying as just another tool in the arsenal. Maybe it’s the case that he could sit down and churn out a great 3D version of a film he never purposefully shot for 3D and create a phenomenal product.

However, the aftermarket stuff like Alice in Wonderland and Clash of the Titans we’ve seen so far is almost unwatchable. Here’s to hoping Scott infuses the 3D style while cameras are rolling on that Alien prequel ‐ which, according to the interview is also one of two planned prequels he’d like to see made.

What do you think?

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